potential returning player

[Insonia]

So I've been thinking of returning to rift the last time I played was just after the storm xpac and I got I think lv60 but I didn't quest my way there I was basically boosted by a bunch of guys I met

so what I'm asking is what is the state of the game these days did everything pan out? is it worth playing ?

is it pay to win like archage their other mmo would suck if it was :/

what new things can I expect going with my classic rift knowledge only

if it helps I played a rogue I and I was a marksmen whos rotation could be done on 2 buttons can I still do that or do I need to use skill now

thanks for any and all replies

[Morgaith]

You can try the game if you want for free and see nearly all the content but if you want to be competetive there are quite a few paywalls that you need to climb.

The future of Rift is also dire.

[Insonia]

what do you mean by it's dire? not looking good at all?

and meh paywalls suck I assume some content is locked away via transactions? like souls or whatever specs where called

[Slipmat]

what do you mean by it's dire? not looking good at all?

and meh paywalls suck I assume some content is locked away via transactions? like souls or whatever specs where called

Rift is not "dying", "dead" or in "dire" trouble, it just celebrated it's 5th Anniversary and right now the game is busy with plenty of people enjoying the Carnival which pays out awesome loot.

As for paywalls? yes, the new soul packs will cost you either credits (bought with real money or convert platinum you earn in game into REX which is like a WoW token) or you can pay a trustworthy Rift store seller platinum to 'gift' you items.

Right now the 4 traditional Callings of Cleric, Mage, Rogue and Warrior have 11 souls each, 8 of these souls are totally free and you will only "need" the other 3 souls if you like strange classes like a Tanking Mage, healing Warriors and Rogues and so forth, all the callings can Tank, heal, DPS or support, all depends if you like the idea of playing a "Battle" Mage or a Tank Mage, Clerics, Rogues and Warriors can tank just fine on free souls.

They added a new calling, Primalist, which is a bought soul pack and offers just a slightly different playstyle, nothing you really need if you plan to just jump in and play, again, the game is totally free, you have access to all content that somebody paying a monthly Patron sub has, there's no zones, dungeons, warfronts, instant adventures etc blocked off to you, there's no limits set on the amount of times you can run dungeons/warfront per day, can do them 24/7 if you want.

However, you'll see that Earring slots are locked to you and if you intend to play a bleeding edge, progress Raider then you will have to unlock said Earring slots as no Guild will take somebody to the current Tier 3 20-man Raid without them, this is probably the only item said to be a paywall, plenty of people play and raid with the free 8 souls and just pay for earrings, again, unless you're on the hardcore side of things, earrings are not essential for 99% of the game.

Download it, play it for free.

[theWocky]

Rift is in a dire state. It is losing players, guilds, all the time. For all intention purposes, Rift is dead.

I think there is one guy doing YouTubing on it seriously and even he is a bit delusional or on some secret Trion happy sauce
(entire channel is basically a hard on promo for Trion)

During the last month, which saw the largest give-away, the largest prizes by any company (free five year subscriptions, unlock all mounts in-game, top level armour, credit packs), the game community actually appears to have shrunk.
http://steamcharts.com/app/39120

Don't come at me with the crap that steam numbers don't matter. Many games dual-promo their games. On the forums, people are regularly asking to buy things via Steam - they even added the new soul pack to Steam after a day. It is an important source of revenue for them.

Endgame Raiding is dead. There are maybe 30 or so Rift active end-game raiding guilds world-wide.
http://www.topofrift.com/

The grind - oh, my lack of god... Never thjought they could make a game this grindy.

It's not lack of talent keeping these raiders on 1/9 bosses killed. It's lack of players.

Even the new 3.6 patch only made a marginal bump in numbers.

While these figures are not definitive indication of numbers, during the event, Trion accidently let the number of active players participating in the event go up to 5000 people - the maximum players participating for part of that week? 4497 players.

So, we can assume (being generous) that the game has an active community of 10,000 or less players - across all regions.

Is it worth trying? Depends on how much you value your time. Mine is certainly worth more.

Why would you? GW2, Wildstar, even Tera with recent changes, Elder Scrolls Online, Blade and Soul, Black Desert Online have more "honest" Business models and larger communities.

So, Is Rift worth spending money on? No.

Trion are essentially making their "F2P" game compulsary to subscribe too.
If you don't subscribe, you're losing out on the P2W free piece of T3 armour you can get every month - yes, a free piece of the latest armour - just by doing a "subscriber/patron" only quest.

They are nickel and diming every damn thing they can.

Don't believe the "oh, you can buy stuff from the store with in-game currency called REX" - Yeah, talk about grind. Grind is normal, but this game takes it to a whole new level.

They are in full damage control mode now, FINALLY trying to fix performance issues that have plagued the game for years, but still releasing buggy, unfinished overpriced soulpacks that people have paid for, raids that are still as buggy as hell.

I get a mail punting "huge performance" gains - please come back to Rift! Absolute bullshit and dishonest.

Hell, they even partnered with a third party to do the leaderboard for the massive March give-away event and couldn't even get that working properly till 1/2 way through the month.

Quality Control is in the toilet and god help you if you criticize the game on the forums. Insta-ban.

Slipmat saying the game is ok is silly. He used to have one of the largest social guilds on the EU - dozens of people.
When's the last time he had 20 people on, how he struggles to get raids together? Ask him. I should know - been in his guild for months.

[Slipmat]

Ah here comes Wocky, never saw a player so butthurt over a game before, not sure what Trion ever done to you but your song and dance is getting a bit old

Let's see....

If you don't subscribe, you're losing out on the P2W free piece of T3 armour you can get every month - yes, a free piece of the latest armour - just by doing a "subscriber/patron" only quest

Is that the same Tier 3 armor pieces a totally F2P player can also earn with currencies by doing weekly quets and Experts/Dungeons? you know, the Fragments of Darkness tokens? oh yes it is, so a F2P player can get the exact same gear i can, imagine that...

GW2, Wildstar, even Tera with recent changes, Elder Scrolls Online, Blade and Soul, Black Desert Online have more "honest" Business models and larger communities.

Doing game vs game posts on MMO Champion never leads to a good ending but briefly, most of the games you listed are at least Buy to Play, some you have to pay for the Expansions, some sell P2W items, have fun in Blade and Soul getting rick rolled by hackers and bots in their PvP, same with Black Desert, wait until people come up against the "+17 stats" PvP players which somebody that didn't buy the costumes and pets with stats hasn't a snowballs chance in Hell of beating, no need to go on, only game that comes close to Rift's F2P model from your list is TERA and they fired a lot of staff recently, so not going great.

Don't come at me with the crap that steam numbers don't matter.

Eh yes i will, you seem to have this misconception that Steam is this "everybody must play through it or else", no idea what the figures are for people that like to play Rift through Steam but it's not as high as you'd like it to be to wave in our face and scream "look look, i told ya, Rift is dead!"

Not going to bother with a War and Peace sized post but you need to put that anger you got against Trion to some use, rather than nerd raging on a games Forum about them, i'm fairly sure people know how to make up their own mind about a game and not take the slightest notice of what you, me or anybody else thinks, download the game, go in and play it for free

[theWocky]

Ah here comes Wocky, never saw a player so butthurt over a game before, not sure what Trion ever done to you but your song and dance is getting a bit old

I have played many MMO's in my life. I usually left due to boredom or game changes or burnout. I return to EvE and WoW every few years.
None have upset me as Trion have. Does make you wonder, right?

For a start, getting banned on RIFT forums for constructive criticism several times was one. Favouritism of a certain Trion "clique" was another.

From that point on, I lost interest in being polite.
Three, yes THREE sets of company lay-offs due to dumb business decisions.
Firing Elrar was another. I know some of the internal politics going on there from a close source. Dahanese being hired and Elrar fired.
Not to mention the current CM clique.
You think the apotheosis guild leaving - 20 people straight up and saying "F--k Trion" would have happened if there wasn't truth there?
https://www.reddit.com/r/Rift/commen..._says_goodbye/

I guess all these people and their friends are just butthurt as well?
http://forums.riftgame.com/general-d...s-allowed.html
Current crew at Trion is a joke.

People being banned left right and center for speaking out?
http://massivelyop.com/2016/01/04/ri...r-suspensions/

Company changing from the underdog to a corporate "nickel and dime" show drove many away.
Not in just Rift, but every single game they publish. In my opinion, they mislead new players.
Think of me as just another consumer watchdog.

Also, you in particular irk me. Grim is beginning to come close as well. Still convinced you work for Trion.

Amused at your response. While it was a long post, I popped out a dozen or so points and your only response of irrational substance?
Jaded by your well known title of a the resident MMOchamp Trion PR Fanboy of interest is you once again misread what I said: "list of games... have more "honest" Business models and larger communities. "
- I wasn't commenting on whether they were F2P or not - just that they are better, more fair, MMORPG's.
Even WoW knows "what" business model it is. Trion's Rift, who the hell knows? It changes once they have you committed.

Everything points to Rift in decline and Trion in damage control.

I'll leave it up to the posters to read my points and see how impotent you were to dispute them.

- - - Updated - - -

and meh paywalls suck I assume some content is locked away via transactions? like souls or whatever specs where called

Currently, if you're a new F2P player and want ALL the DLC's. the entry level price for RIFT is over US$180

The primalist still needs more souls, so expect an additional US$30 on top of that when they release it. The first need to fix the bugs in the new pack, however - which they were warned about on the Test Server and released anyway to Live.
http://forums.riftgame.com/general-d...n-opinion.html

Also, if you're not a subscriber, you lose out on a bunch of nice benefits. As a F2P player, you can't queue for a specific dungeon or warfront.
You also don't get to participate in "patron" quests that give out a piece of the latest Tier armour each month. Yes, Tier 3 gear for doing a quest - grinding.

[Deleted]

Ah here comes Wocky, never saw a player so butthurt over a game before, not sure what Trion ever done to you but your song and dance is getting a bit old

Let's see....



Is that the same Tier 3 armor pieces a totally F2P player can also earn with currencies by doing weekly quets and Experts/Dungeons? you know, the Fragments of Darkness tokens? oh yes it is, so a F2P player can get the exact same gear i can, imagine that...



Doing game vs game posts on MMO Champion never leads to a good ending but briefly, most of the games you listed are at least Buy to Play, some you have to pay for the Expansions, some sell P2W items, have fun in Blade and Soul getting rick rolled by hackers and bots in their PvP, same with Black Desert, wait until people come up against the "+17 stats" PvP players which somebody that didn't buy the costumes and pets with stats hasn't a snowballs chance in Hell of beating, no need to go on, only game that comes close to Rift's F2P model from your list is TERA and they fired a lot of staff recently, so not going great.




Eh yes i will, you seem to have this misconception that Steam is this "everybody must play through it or else", no idea what the figures are for people that like to play Rift through Steam but it's not as high as you'd like it to be to wave in our face and scream "look look, i told ya, Rift is dead!"

Not going to bother with a War and Peace sized post but you need to put that anger you got against Trion to some use, rather than nerd raging on a games Forum about them, i'm fairly sure people know how to make up their own mind about a game and not take the slightest notice of what you, me or anybody else thinks, download the game, go in and play it for free

And here comes you.... a person who goes as far as to even defend Archeage on the Archeage megathread.
I wonder who people should take more seriously.... sign me up for Wocky anytime

[StrawberryZebra]

and meh paywalls suck I assume some content is locked away via transactions? like souls or whatever specs where called

Theres no content hard-locked behind paywalls. However there is an equipment slot you need to buy, Earrings, if you want to do some of the higher level content. With the runes and orbs you're looking at ~700 of your main stat at least locked away behind a paywall. Thats a huge chunk of stats that you simply cannot do without, and the value only increases as your gear improves. I was, occasionally, kicked from LFG Expert groups for not meeting the obscene Hit 1300 requirements they all demand. Without Earrings I expect you'd be lucky to get a group that lets you stick around for more than the time it takes to load into the zone.

You can unlock them with an in-game currency called REX, but you can expect to pay around 4000 plat for a single one. Its a lot to lay your hands on if you've not got access to the AH.

It also takes a rediculous amount of work to get yourself from a fresh 65 to being ready to raid the current content. There are no catch-up mechanics in place, so you need to grind everything out the hard way. Expect to spend lots of time waiting for groups to fill up too. Standing around trying to find people to fill up a raid for over an hour is commonplace, LFG queues can be many hours long if you're only DPS.

Is that the same Tier 3 armor pieces a totally F2P player can also earn with currencies by doing weekly quets and Experts/Dungeons? you know, the Fragments of Darkness tokens? oh yes it is, so a F2P player can get the exact same gear i can, imagine that...

You get these in chunks of 50 from Experts, and you need 13500 for some items. Thats 270 NTE's you'll need to do for a single piece of gear, or an NTE every day for eight months straight if you're f2p. The cheaper pieces at 11000 would still take 220 days, or an NTE every day for six months. You're looking at a time line that spans three and a half years to get a full set of T3 this way. Its certainly doable, while at the same time also being totally impractical.

[Slipmat]

Thats 270 NTE's you'll need to do for a single piece of gear, or an NTE every day for eight months straight if you're f2p.

If only there were weekly quests everyone, including F2P players, could do to earn the Fragments of Darkness currency to buy the T3 armor pieces.....

Oh wait, there's a crap ton of weeklies that players can do and they pay out at least 100 Fragments of Darkness each, from the top of my head i can count up to at least 15 weeklies paying out 100 FoDs each.

[theWocky]

If only there were weekly quests everyone, including F2P players, could do to earn the Fragments of Darkness currency to buy the T3 armor pieces.....

Why are you being so disingenuous and misleading?

There is no denying there is an EXTRA specific, patron (subscriber) only exceptional sparkly quest in addition to the usual grindy weeklies giving out T3 gear to everyone (takes weeks to do these compared to one month for a subscriber)?

In other words, in the time it may take an F2P player to get one piece of T3 gear, a subscriber will get TWO.

It's a special patron only quest boost to get extra chance at gear:
http://forums.riftgame.com/general-d...-bad-ugly.html

Even you said you weren't happy about it on the RIFT forums - made your own post? Of course, you did backpeddle later because it's obvious to anyone and everyone that you (and Grim) are Trion Apologetics - they can do absolutely no wrong in your eyes.

http://forums.riftgame.com/general-d...hly-quest.html

Fact is that Rift is Pay 2 Win for subscribers over F2P'ers as they are giving them a special quest giving out additional free T3 loot.

[Slipmat]

Fact is that Rift is Pay 2 Win for subscribers over F2P'ers as they are giving them a special quest giving out free T3 loot.

You conveniently miss the fact that a F2P player can earn the exact same gear by doing weeklies and using the Fragments of Darkness tokens to buy the exact same gear, as the "p2w" (looool) sparkle quest, if anyone is even going to do that month in month out all it means that a Patron can get an extra piece of gear if they decide to do the quest every month, plus there's no guarantee the piece they get is not a piece they already have, you can't pick and choose what piece of gear is in the sparkles box, it's random.

By your posts you feel that anyone that never pays a button to play Rift should be and is entitled to get everything a Patron, paying to support and keep the game running, gets? If that was the case Rift would be closed down within a week as everyone would just decide to play for free, on top of that, this "Patron only" quest does not prevent a totally F2P player getting the exact same gear as a Patron but for free.

It will just take them slightly longer, which has to be the case, or else why even bother becoming a Patron, just play for nothing?, reap all benefits?, awesome business logic.

[theWocky]

Continuing to being deliberately ignorant, Slipmat?

Future Viewers of this post - please see ABOVE for the ramblings of a person with the equivalent reasoning of a religious game apologist zealot who "doesn't get it" and then read what my original point is above his - he just doesn't get it.

You miss the point as to why I am disgruntled too: Fact is, Rift is an MMO with a business payment model Identity crisis and it misleads it's customers that it is F2P. It claims to be F2P, but is actually a B2P DLC game with a subscription model (and a cash shop) heavily enforced in an underhanded P2W manner. Being a subscriber gives you an extra piece of TOP RAID GEAR loot specific to your class each month by doing a simple "subscriber only" quest.

Even worse, they even took features away from F2P players recently and made them Patron Only. This is a direct breach of trust of the original agreement that F2P players signed up for. It's unethical, calculated and shameless. F2P Players (people that may even support the game via the cash store) are leaving the game in droves because they don't know what next will be removed and made "patron only".

ps. thanks for boosting / bumping this post for the rest of MMOchamp to see on the front page every time, Slipmat.
Great PR for Rift.

[Slipmat]

Not sure if you're deliberately been obtuse or do you actually believe what you're trying to make Rift out to be something it's not, let's examine your latest words of wisdom....

Fact is, Rift is an MMO with a business payment model Identity crisis and it misleads it's customers that it is F2P. It claims to be F2P, but is actually a B2P DLC game with a subscription model (and a cash shop) heavily enforced in an underhanded P2W manner. Being a subscriber gives you an extra piece of TOP RAID GEAR loot specific to your class each month by doing a simple "subscriber only" quest.

Fact: Rift is F2P, any DLCs you "perceive" to be B2P and P2W are optional, let's look at that word again, optional. There is nothing you need in a DLC to fully play the game like a person who is a Patron can play.

All zones, all Dungeons, all Warfronts, all Instant Adventures, access to one of the best housing systems in any MMO (Dimensions), access to one of the better wardrobe systems in any MMO is all entirely free, let's repeat that word again just in case it passed you by FREE.

The entire game is free, you can level all the way from level 1 to current end cap of level 65 and never, ever spend a dime, nothing, nada, zilch, big fat zero.

I've gone over your pet rant "subscriber only quest" twice now, maybe third time lucky it will sink in with you, a F2P player can also earn the exact same gear for free, there's that word again, free

Even worse, they even took features away from F2P players recently and made them Patron Only

What features? oh, you mean like not been able to pick a specific Dungeon? well boo hoo, walk to the entrance and port in the old skool way, can't pick a specific Warfront? well boo hoo, i thought the whole point of people wanting to Pee Vee Pee was kill other players and not care where and when, also, access to all dungeons and warfronts is not restricted in any way, a F2P can run them 24/7 all year round if he wishes, now compare that to another "F2P" game that will limit you to a set number per week if you're not subscribing, F2P indeed.

[theWocky]

Once again. Thank you for bumping this thread with your nonsensical arguments, Slipmat.

Bravo.

- - - Updated - - -

What features? oh, you mean like not been able to pick a specific Dungeon? well boo hoo, walk to the entrance and port in the old skool way, can't pick a specific Warfront? well boo hoo, i thought the whole point of people wanting to Pee Vee Pee was kill other players and not care where and when,

Yup, those. You don't "take things away" and win F2P players. You give extra things to paying customers, but you don't penalize people for what they had from the beginning of F2P.

ps. People like you are what's wrong with Rift and why Trion continues to abuse their relationship with other players. Less than 1/2 the people that are playing now will be here when their "6th anniversary" comes around - if they even last another year.

pps. You sure you don't work for Trion?

[Henako]

snip

From a 3rd party perspective that hasn't played Rift since release, you sound insane.

[jba252]

My problem is more of a personal one. I always want to play DPS only and not support, heals, or tank, but everywhere I go its support this, heal that. Otherwise I'm okay with the game, haven't played it since BDO came out though.

[Deleted]

Once again. Thank you for bumping this thread with your nonsensical arguments, Slipmat.

Bravo.

- - - Updated - - -



Yup, those. You don't "take things away" and win F2P players. You give extra things to paying customers, but you don't penalize people for what they had from the beginning of F2P.

ps. People like you are what's wrong with Rift and why Trion continues to abuse their relationship with other players. Less than 1/2 the people that are playing now will be here when their "6th anniversary" comes around - if they even last another year.

pps. You sure you don't work for Trion?

Didn't they remove rested XP for f2p-players as well?

[theWocky]

Didn't they remove rested XP for f2p-players as well?

Yes.

As well as removed stacking Warfront, Dungeon Charges.

Trion really took a nerf-bat to Rift F2P players.

"In addition to these new bonuses, the following convenience perks are now exclusive to our Patrons (and taken away from F2P players):
- stacking charges for Dungeons, Warfonts, and Instant Adventures
- accumulating rest experience
- queuing for specific Warfronts and Dungeons"

Also, after hiking the Auction House fees to ultimate cock-bag levels a year or so ago due to "a way to prevent people putting too much stuff on the AH - causing in-game lag", now patrons/subscribers also get: 50% reduced Auction House fees and commissions


Just look at how happy people are in this thread (where they cheerfully announce the big "f--k you" to F2P players above):
http://forums.riftgame.com/general-d...en-better.html

oh, yeah - and some other guy in the thread mentions - locking Best In Slot essences behind a DOUBLE RNG pay-wall lockbox system.

[Deleted]

So I've been thinking of returning to rift the last time I played was just after the storm xpac and I got I think lv60 but I didn't quest my way there I was basically boosted by a bunch of guys I met

so what I'm asking is what is the state of the game these days did everything pan out? is it worth playing ?

is it pay to win like archage their other mmo would suck if it was :/

what new things can I expect going with my classic rift knowledge only

if it helps I played a rogue I and I was a marksmen whos rotation could be done on 2 buttons can I still do that or do I need to use skill now

thanks for any and all replies

Ill try to give you a short answer.

if you want to log do some meaningless stuff and log off, it might be okish for you.

If you want to do something in a semi serious way, you want to be usefull for your raid mates/pvp mates, if you dont want to be left behind etc etc(you get the idea) be ready to open your wallet to spend a retarded amount of money( that lie about buying stuff with plat, just forget about it.) and be ready to grind like theres no fucking tomorrow.