I'm trying out RIFT for free to level 20, I have some questions

[RoninaThorstone]

Umm...what? If you can honestly just do any PvE at max level, outside of raiding and dungeon grinding, but still get the 'epics' I'm going to buy/sub to this game this week.

Can someone confirm/deny?

When I hit 50 I had done enough world events that I could buy T1 equivalent gear

[Kelimbror]

*snip*

Well...that will be a nice diversion from dailies, dailies, dailies and raid, raid, raid as the only way to get gear. Thank you for the info.

---------- Post added 2012-12-12 at 04:58 PM ----------

When I hit 50 I had done enough world events that I could buy T1 equivalent gear

I think I will pick up at least the base game on Friday...since it still comes with a month sub for 9.99...which is a steal.

[Lathais]

Umm...what? If you can honestly just do any PvE at max level, outside of raiding and dungeon grinding, but still get the 'epics' I'm going to buy/sub to this game this week.

Can someone confirm/deny?

Yes, you can get epic gear without grinding dungeons or raids. It will take longer and not be quite as good, but you can get it. Just like in chocolate you could get the un-upgraded set of gear from the final tier of raiding from just running Experts. To upgrade it to the best set you did in fact need to run T3 raids though.

Basically, you can get the gear from one tier beyond what you are willing to do. If you are not willing to run Expert dungeons, the gear upgraded from the World Gear vendor comes out roughly equivalent. If you are not willing to raid, upgrading the Expert gear comes out roughly equivalent. You still cannot get the very very best, but you also won't need it for anything.

[Antipathy]

Well...that will be a nice diversion from dailies, dailies, dailies and raid, raid, raid as the only way to get gear. Thank you for the info.

They are very good at that.

Joining a guild for example, will give you access to a guild banner and a summon scroll. In my guild, whenever an event starts, people put up banners and we all port to help out. Instant adventures also can be extremely rewarding for the stones.

And finally, check out the Fae Yule event. they emphasis is and always has been, on getting people out into the world. They are also such bastards in that for example, a world event merchant will have so many freaking goodies that it will literally make you do some math to figure out how many things you need to do to get everything you want. and frankly speaking, there have been some world events where I've gotten the purchases I want on the very last day; and this is after spending days on end out in the world closing rifts, collecting stuff, doing IA's, or whatever. One of the events even had a PvP theme, where one faction had to beat the other to progress to the next stage of the world event.

---------- Post added 2012-12-12 at 10:07 PM ----------

Yes, you can get epic gear without grinding dungeons or raids. It will take longer and not be quite as good, but you can get it. Just like in chocolate you could get the un-upgraded set of gear from the final tier of raiding from just running Experts. To upgrade it to the best set you did in fact need to run T3 raids though.

Basically, you can get the gear from one tier beyond what you are willing to do. If you are not willing to run Expert dungeons, the gear upgraded from the World Gear vendor comes out roughly equivalent. If you are not willing to raid, upgrading the Expert gear comes out roughly equivalent. You still cannot get the very very best, but you also won't need it for anything.

Pretty much this. IMO, no reward in any MMO SHOULD be higher than the coordinated efforts of a raid group. But the idea here is that you don't actually need to raid to progress your character, can actually improve the gear you have as time goes on, and it doesn't leave you behind in the lurch if you missed out on a tier.

[Kelimbror]

Basically, you can get the gear from one tier beyond what you are willing to do. If you are not willing to run Expert dungeons, the gear upgraded from the World Gear vendor comes out roughly equivalent. If you are not willing to raid, upgrading the Expert gear comes out roughly equivalent. You still cannot get the very very best, but you also won't need it for anything.

I am totally ok with that concept. I understand the difference in effort that organizing people and schedules to raid versus being able to progress at my leisure and admit that a small sacrifice in quality of gear is nothing to complain about. The fact that you can get better gear though, to help make all your solo PvE activities better is awesome.

I'm definitely an advocate of wanting all game activities to have comparable rewards as the future, because I'm tired of companies telling us how we should play

And finally, check out the Fae Yule event. they emphasis is and always has been, on getting people out into the world. They are also such bastards in that for example, a world event merchant will have so many freaking goodies that it will literally make you do some math to figure out how many things you need to do to get everything you want.

Already looked at the goodies...already want the goodies and I don't even play the game for real yet lol.

[Antipathy]

Same with trickle down economics. If you give the majority of the population less, they will have more? Hmm.

But yeah. Its just their idea of a white lie to make people okay with less choice and thus easier to balance classes.

VERY OT!

Frankly, people can be sheep. I worked in a country where they had a system of democracy by majority rule. what ended up happening was that communities would get together in communes to make decisions and these would be so myopic in scale that it left the government with absolute power while giving people the impression that they are in complete control.

People in the communes would be like "I don't like that my house is close to the garbage dumpster" or "the road near my house has a pothole that needs fixing" or "we need a fire hydrant near our building" - and the commune would rule on all this stuff.

Ask them and they will tell you "our system is best", yet most could barely speak the native language, lived in abject poverty, and would generally have no clue about governmental or financial instruments such as public offices, the central bank, interest rates, etc.

sometimes the illusion of things is far more powerful than the reality.

[Azuri]

Umm...what? If you can honestly just do any PvE at max level, outside of raiding and dungeon grinding, but still get the 'epics' I'm going to buy/sub to this game this week.

Can someone confirm/deny?

I've seen relic gear drop from zone events (Orange and rare chance to get).

[Acquiesce of Telara]

I am totally ok with that concept. I understand the difference in effort that organizing people and schedules to raid versus being able to progress at my leisure and admit that a small sacrifice in quality of gear is nothing to complain about. The fact that you can get better gear though, to help make all your solo PvE activities better is awesome.

The open-world, upgradable gear is similar to say, WoW and craftable gear about halfway through an expac. You level up an alt and blow a small fortune on gear that'll gearscore you high enough to join a raid guild.

In Rift, openworld activities provide a particular type of currency. That currency can be saved up and spent to replace each and every piece of gear you own, and every piece of gear can later be upgraded to epic quality. This early in the life-cycle of the expansion, the purples should be right about on par with SL Raid Tier 1 (aka Tier 4). Eventually they'll start lagging behind, but Trion will likely implement additional upgrades to keep them worthwhile.

Beside open world gear, Rift's dungeons and raids drop tokens that can be used to purchase raid armor sets. Raiders earn the tokens in higher amounts than dungeon runners, but ANYONE can work toward the best gear in the game without stepping foot in a raid. It just takes substantially longer if you're not running 10/20 man content.

Then, of course, Raid bosses drop gear too, but that's exclusively the domain of raiders.

[WaitingforMoP]

Somehow my Rift trial char has just sat at level 6 for like a week or more

I just feel like it's so much the same as WoW that I don't even feel compelled to play

Alot of the specs that are supposedly nothing like WoW are actually locked out for me for whatever reason

[Acquiesce of Telara]

Somehow my Rift trial char has just sat at level 6 for like a week or more

I just feel like it's so much the same as WoW that I don't even feel compelled to play

Alot of the specs that are supposedly nothing like WoW are actually locked out for me for whatever reason

Any spec that incorporates one of the 4 new souls won't work without Storm Legion.

I know this particular argument doesn't help anyone on a trial account, but the truth is, the first 20 levels aren't going to show you much more than what you would find in WoW, aside from Instant Adventures and artifacts. Starter zones will feel generic, you can't purchase anything interesting, and the new most-talked about souls aren't available.

Whenever I started a new char in WoW, I almost always quit after a few levels. There's nothing wonderful about weak, ability-less characters in tattered clothing, traversing zones with cheap mobs. It's not a problem with Rift, it's a problem with starting over in general, in most any game.

[merrier]

Somehow my Rift trial char has just sat at level 6 for like a week or more

I just feel like it's so much the same as WoW that I don't even feel compelled to play

Alot of the specs that are supposedly nothing like WoW are actually locked out for me for whatever reason

At level 6, you haven't even made it out into the 'real' world yet. It's a tutorial zone and is very generic, made so that even total newbies to MMOs can get an idea what to do. Not saying you'd feel more motivated after getting out of it, but just so you know that's a different ballgame than the rest of the game.

[Kelimbror]

I know this particular argument doesn't help anyone on a trial account, but the truth is, the first 20 levels aren't going to show you much more than what you would find in WoW, aside from Instant Adventures and artifacts. Starter zones will feel generic, you can't purchase anything interesting, and the new most-talked about souls aren't available.

Whenever I started a new char in WoW, I almost always quit after a few levels. There's nothing wonderful about weak, ability-less characters in tattered clothing, traversing zones with cheap mobs. It's not a problem with Rift, it's a problem with starting over in general, in most any game.

Completely disagree.

I knew enough in 10 minutes to know this game was different. Completely knew by level 10 that it was amazing. If it's someone coming from other MMOs, they will be able to dig into the systems and options available immediately in the game.

If it's someone new to the game, it's going to be a magical experience regardless. I think you aren't giving it enough credit to be honest.

[Acquiesce of Telara]

Completely disagree.

I knew enough in 10 minutes to know this game was different. Completely knew by level 10 that it was amazing. If it's someone coming from other MMOs, they will be able to dig into the systems and options available immediately in the game.

If it's someone new to the game, it's going to be a magical experience regardless. I think you aren't giving it enough credit to be honest.

Believe me, I'd love to be wrong, and will certainly admit to being so. It probably took me about a day and 17 levels to start appreciating Rift, and that was back before 1.1, ignoring all the advances the game has made. Over the last few months of participating on this forum, I've noticed MOST (certainly not all) trial account players appreciated using Instant Adventures to speed up their leveling process. Some appreciate their early look at dungeons, while others have found them derivitive.

A lot of it is the mindset of the potential player. If they want to recapture their earlier MMO experiences, Rift has a lot to offer, but there's only so much they can actually experience in those first 20 levels. A Guardian has no chance to see Gloamwood, and Defiants, IMPO, are stuck with a fairly similar generic 6-20 zone.

Zone Events and random rifts differentiate the game more than I gave credit for in my last post, but depending on player experience, there's as good a chance they'll complain about having to solo rifts alone as they will commend Trion on an amazing addition to gaming.

While I wouldn't go so far as to say you're an exception to the rule (and a wonderful, exceptionally appreciative one at that), the majority of posters we've dealt with here, thus far, aren't enamored by the minutiae early Rift offers. They appreciate the spec depth, the variety of playstyles, and the constant vigilance by Trion, but they don't generally realize how open and rewarding the game can be until all the restrictions are removed and they add a couple dozen levels to their character.

[Lathais]

Believe me, I'd love to be wrong, and will certainly admit to being so. It probably took me about a day and 17 levels to start appreciating Rift, and that was back before 1.1, ignoring all the advances the game has made. Over the last few months of participating on this forum, I've noticed MOST (certainly not all) trial account players appreciated using Instant Adventures to speed up their leveling process. Some appreciate their early look at dungeons, while others have found them derivitive.

A lot of it is the mindset of the potential player. If they want to recapture their earlier MMO experiences, Rift has a lot to offer, but there's only so much they can actually experience in those first 20 levels. A Guardian has no chance to see Gloamwood, and Defiants, IMPO, are stuck with a fairly similar generic 6-20 zone.

Zone Events and random rifts differentiate the game more than I gave credit for in my last post, but depending on player experience, there's as good a chance they'll complain about having to solo rifts alone as they will commend Trion on an amazing addition to gaming.

While I wouldn't go so far as to say you're an exception to the rule (and a wonderful, exceptionally appreciative one at that), the majority of posters we've dealt with here, thus far, aren't enamored by the minutiae early Rift offers. They appreciate the spec depth, the variety of playstyles, and the constant vigilance by Trion, but they don't generally realize how open and rewarding the game can be until all the restrictions are removed and they add a couple dozen levels to their character.

Not to mention the fact that, as with most MMORPGs, the game truly begins at max level. It really is the end-game that make or breaks a game, look at most of the MMO flops over the past years. Game is great but nothing to do at max level, game flops. Seen it happen a bunch. End-game is where Rift stands apart. You get a glimpse of some of this at the lower levels, but not truly. The difficulty of Experts with a barely geared group, Master Modes(hope they bring these back), Slivers and Raids, Chronicles, the much more massive zone events with literally 100s of players in attendance, Conquest...the list goes on. These are the features that truly make Rift stand above and you just don't see it until 60. To many, especially pre-20, the rest is just the same old leveling experience with a different skin.

[Kelimbror]

Believe me, I'd love to be wrong, and will certainly admit to being so. It probably took me about a day and 17 levels to start appreciating Rift, and that was back before 1.1, ignoring all the advances the game has made. Over the last few months of participating on this forum, I've noticed MOST (certainly not all) trial account players appreciated using Instant Adventures to speed up their leveling process. Some appreciate their early look at dungeons, while others have found them derivitive.

A lot of it is the mindset of the potential player. If they want to recapture their earlier MMO experiences, Rift has a lot to offer, but there's only so much they can actually experience in those first 20 levels. A Guardian has no chance to see Gloamwood, and Defiants, IMPO, are stuck with a fairly similar generic 6-20 zone.

Zone Events and random rifts differentiate the game more than I gave credit for in my last post, but depending on player experience, there's as good a chance they'll complain about having to solo rifts alone as they will commend Trion on an amazing addition to gaming.

While I wouldn't go so far as to say you're an exception to the rule (and a wonderful, exceptionally appreciative one at that), the majority of posters we've dealt with here, thus far, aren't enamored by the minutiae early Rift offers. They appreciate the spec depth, the variety of playstyles, and the constant vigilance by Trion, but they don't generally realize how open and rewarding the game can be until all the restrictions are removed and they add a couple dozen levels to their character.

That's a pretty fair point.

I'm probably in my MMO psychological cycle where I'm starting back over and this is a great MMO 2.0 starting experience for me. Also I can see how a slightly emptier starting world will make everything feel dead. I haven't had a problem soloing Rifts, but I'm a mage. I don't know if that makes a difference.

[blackblade]

i'll cover all the souls just for the sake of complete information:

--snip--

actually, maybe this semi-humorous summary deserves a place of it's own for anybody who hasnt played before. do we have an official thread for stuff like this?

You should totally make one.

Having just wandered in here to see what the dill-y-o was about a free trial for rift this was a good read.

[Acquiesce of Telara]

That's a pretty fair point.

I'm probably in my MMO psychological cycle where I'm starting back over and this is a great MMO 2.0 starting experience for me. Also I can see how a slightly emptier starting world will make everything feel dead. I haven't had a problem soloing Rifts, but I'm a mage. I don't know if that makes a difference.

Like Lathais mentioned, the true beauty of Rift opens at end-level, and outside of a game like GW2, its common to suggest as much when referencing most games. Due to this idea, many players associate the leveling (and exploration) process as an obstacle, not an experience, so they're as likely as not to miss all the details players such as yourself relish.

ETA: Drunk Acquiesce 1, Kittyvicous 0

[Kelimbror]

Like Lathais mentioned, the true beauty of Rift opens at end-level, and outside of a game like GW2, its common to suggest as much when referencing most games. Due to this idea, many players associate the leveling (and exploration) process as an obstacle, not an experience, so they're as likely as not to miss all the details players such as yourself relish.

ETA: Drunk Acquiesce 1, Kittyvicous 0

Well none of this applies to me, soooo....I don't really think you get a point.

And you should probably change that to Drunk Kitty. It's always a safe bet after 5:30.

[Acquiesce of Telara]

Well none of this applies to me, soooo....I don't really think you get a point.

And you should probably change that to Drunk Kitty. It's always a safe bet after 5:30.

Ha! Touché.

[Deleted]

Greetings!
Played with Rift for a while around Cata times when i get bored with LFR spamming and etc.Have 3 lvl 50 character on Icewatch.I _really_ loved rift,was so massive,cool and total eyecady,even loved the pvp. I had only one problem (aside that i didnt feel the flow of my rogue tank,was just not comfortable to me in experts): playerbase was lower and lower after weeks.
So im thinking about playing rift and buying SL again (my guild is disbanded in wow,and casual lfr spamming/random hc is just not satisfying enough).
But my question is: is there any activity on Icewatch? Or what is the most populated eu server? (mainly defiant side,but dont mind to roll guardian).I just want a busy,populated server where i wont be alone.
TLDR: how is rift nowadays?
Sorry for my bad english btw,not my main.