Still a grind?

[Sikend]

I played rift when it first came out. and too be honest it is the best MMO i have played to date. I am going to give GW2 a try but if that fails i want to come back to rift. But one problem i had was the grinding for the Planar essence and stuff, it seemed like you had to do a TON to be viable but we were also going for shard firsts when dragonblight was the raid to be in.

[artemishunter1]

I played rift when it first came out. and too be honest it is the best MMO i have played to date. I am going to give GW2 a try but if that fails i want to come back to rift. But one problem i had was the grinding for the Planar essence and stuff, it seemed like you had to do a TON to be viable but we were also going for shard firsts when dragonblight was the raid to be in.

first two 25 mans don't require sigil. none of the 10 mans require sigil. Two bosses in hammerknell used to require sigil. The most recent 25 man does, but you would be grinding out the sigil slow and steady because you would be starting at the begining tier. You can't skip to the most current one, its tiered.

[DeltrusDisc]

Dragonblight? O.o

That's a zone in WoW: Northrend...

Do you mean Greenscale's Blight? :P

Either way, I'd say they really toned down the grind factor, however there is still something to be said for how you can tell when someone spends time grinding a bit and when someone doesn't.

[Sikend]

Yeah sorry Greenscales blight lol

[zito]

I find the entry to expert dungeons grindy as after you do your daily rewards from normal dungeons there is no other way to get plagues other then the last boss of a dungeon, and they only drop 1 in old dungeons 2 in the newer ones and planarite rate seems to be lower then what I played before.

[Fencers]

Frankly, yes. It's a grind.

Rift lets you progress in different ways- open world, pvp wfs, pvp conquest, dungeons or raids. But they all require quite a lot of time investment to grind out XX of whatever reward they offer. Oddly, raiding is the easiest/quickest grind.

[Lathais]

I am T2 raid ready and have very little gear from I had to grind for. Getting Expert Ready is practically a joke now. You can get the transplanar set with a nominal amount of planarite, rune that up with hit/focus and grab a couple rings and an amulet from crafters and be ready to run Experts. No problem there.

Running Experts gets you the gear you need to be T1 Raid ready, from drops alone. The Plaques are there in case you get super super unlucky with drops, and the Infernal Marks from daily are a bonus as well. Once I was T1 raid ready, I ran one DH PuG and got really lucky on 2 drops, along with that and running mDD twice a week and gettingdrops from there, I am T2 raid ready with very little effort.

The only thing I used ISS and Planarite on was Lesser Essences, and honestly, running IA to get ISS isn't bad and a few Onslaughts in EI get you the planarite. It's actually kinda fun too. Of course, I was T1 raid ready without these, just looking for stuff to do outside of raid time got me this stuff easily. While doing it, I got plenty of Planar Attunement levels as well.

[Tarien]

Yeah while there is technically a long way to go from fresh 50 to raiding ID, I don't find it a grind because you are always doing different things and always advancing, and really it doesn't take that long to get there. Along the way you will see Invasions, Conquest, IAs, Onslaughts, Chronicles, Expert Dungeons, and six different raids spanning two tiers, really there is so much to do in the closing months of vanilla RIFT that it isn't going to feel like a grind.

[Sleepysnik]

The only thing I used ISS and Planarite on was Lesser Essences, and honestly, running IA to get ISS isn't bad and a few Onslaughts in EI get you the planarite.

Onslaughts are genious, tho can be a little frustrating if you are going solo without having invested in extra planar charges I'm definitely going to use them in Storm Legion to get planarite.

[Onorvele]

I played rift when it first came out. and too be honest it is the best MMO i have played to date. I am going to give GW2 a try but if that fails i want to come back to rift. But one problem i had was the grinding for the Planar essence and stuff, it seemed like you had to do a TON to be viable but we were also going for shard firsts when dragonblight was the raid to be in.

Yes, Rift is still a MMO.
Yes, if you are going for shard firsts, you're going to have to do a lot of MMOing in a short period.
Rift does give more options for MMOing than other MMOs. But it's still a MMO.

Note - replace MMO with grind.

[Runintowalls]

I played rift when it first came out. and too be honest it is the best MMO i have played to date. I am going to give GW2 a try but if that fails i want to come back to rift. But one problem i had was the grinding for the Planar essence and stuff, it seemed like you had to do a TON to be viable but we were also going for shard firsts when dragonblight was the raid to be in.

its a matter of perspective and subjective opinion. if you want to gear for raid progression in 1 day or even 1 week, it will be a grind. the standard is for you to play the game and gearing is a means to an end. if you want the best gear right after making level 50 you will have to put in the time and effort in a condensed amount of time, people may call this a grind (MMO's are long term games, content tuned for weeks or months of longevity, gear acquired gradually as you enjoy the dungeon and raid content)

some players are instant gratification minded (or have a sense of entitlement) if someone else has something (though that person worked months to get it, some players feel they should be able to have the same gear without the work. this is the downside to so much freedom and equality this generation expects)

instead of expecting to raid with the best gear right away (because that's not the point of any game) play the game for the sake of playing the game. only playing the game so you can be the best won't be satisfying for long, and why should you be the best rather than the other guy?

all I can say really, is the "grind" isn't the problem, the problem is each individual's perception or expectation or reason for playing the game which is unrealistic and flawed. (not to play the game or see new content, but to get to "the end" or "beat the game" which is not how you play *any* MMO)

I enjoy things to do and pursuing goals and trying to upgrade my gear. I don't play the game to be better than everyone else, I play to experience the content.

TL;DR enjoy playing the game at your level, not someone else's

[Sikend]

Good info thanks, with the release of Cata for world of warcraft there was an increase of "casual" raiding guilds. one or two days a week. are there enough of those guilds in rift that i could find one?

[Sleepysnik]

Good info thanks, with the release of Cata for world of warcraft there was an increase of "casual" raiding guilds. one or two days a week. are there enough of those guilds in rift that i could find one?

Simple answer, yes. If you are on EU I would recommend Icewatch (god it hurts me to say it). Biggest English server, with lots of raiding guilds in all shapes and sizes. Blightweald is where the pros hang out, but there is much less stuff going on there, except for you know.. the hunt for world firsts :P

[jimmyh]

I am T2 raid ready and have very little gear from I had to grind for. Getting Expert Ready is practically a joke now. You can get the transplanar set with a nominal amount of planarite, rune that up with hit/focus and grab a couple rings and an amulet from crafters and be ready to run Experts. No problem there.

What did you do for a weapon upgrade before running experts?

[Lathais]

What did you do for a weapon upgrade before running experts?

I didn't. I reached 100 Hit to make myself able to run Expert and got a weapon from Experts. PvP weapons make a decent stop-gap as well though. They have no Hit, but you can get enough hit elsewhere. I also ran with a mostly static group and we were all geared similarly. We got through Experts, at appropriate gear level, without being over-geared. Some of them were a bit tough at those gear levels, I'll admit. But even our tank was just using some blue weapon he crafted for himself or got as a quest reward or something. It may have been from a regular level 50 dungeon though, not sure.