So you tried RIFT earlier, here's why you should take another look

[Tarien]

So there are a great many "I tried RIFT in beta/at launch/early on and I didn't like it for x/y/z reason(s)" posts, this post is here to break down what is different and better now, and why you should think about giving it another shot.

Anything you think I missed or can be improved upon, post below, anything you hated in beta/launch you want to know if it is better now, post below!

General:

• There is now an unlimited free trial that let's you experience the starter zone and the first proper zone plus each factions capital.
• As part of the unlimited trial you are able to access two Warfronts and the first two Dungeons, and level up to 20.
• Old players can return for free but will not be able to access any character that is 21+ without first subscribing.

Levelling:

• Yes the questing still sucks, it's 90% kill and collect. But...
• Getting to 50 takes around 30hrs if you really push. Guild perks (+XP bonus) help, so find a nice guild.
• You can get a +% XP trinket if you use a Recruit a Friend link (many stickied in a thread at the top of this forum).
• Mobs are much more thinly spread so you are less likely to be overwhelmed.
• Mobs are much less likely to dismount you now, even less when they are lower level than you.
• All souls are freely available as soon as you create your character, no silly quest to get each one.
• New (in 1.7) pre-set soul combinations for the most popular/useful builds with information on what abilities to use and where to spend points to make the soul system easier for new players.
• New porticulums (flight points) added to make travel easier.
• Invasions and Rifts tweaked to make them more appropriate for zone population.
• LFD tool to help you get into dungeons while levelling.
• Much levelling gear added and existing gear is cheaper/more accessible.

Endgame:

• All types of Crafting, Expert and Raid Rifts are available. Two T2 raid rifts are available on Ember Isle.
• An entire massive new zone dedicated to level 50s (though fresh 50s might need a friend or two), with objectives, dailies, reputation stuff etc.
• Sagas: Looooong quest lines for the Life and Water factions, lot's of back story and unique rewards (like a crocodile mount).
• Chronicles: Solo or Duo instances, good for gearing new 50's or getting to know RIFTs lore in more detail. Take place inside of existing Raid instances so casual's can see parts of them.
• Instant Adventures: Teleport instantly into a raid group and run amok in one of the high level zones as quests direct you from one objective to the next. Lot's of XP and other desirable rewards.
• Alternate Advancement: All that XP that is wasted at L50 because you are max level now gets channeled into Planar Attunement levels. Each PA level gives points to spend in PA trees, which allow you to deal more damage with certain weapons, increase your intellect or stamina, build resistances, and so on (note that this is a loooooooong term thing, don't expect to max it within even a few months of the most hellish grinding).

Dungeons:

• A new dungeon, Caduceus Rise, has been added. It has a normal, two expert and a master modes.
• Many dungeons have had revisions to their rewards and challenge level.
• T1/2 expert dungeons are being merged to ease the gearing process (coming 1.7).
• T1/2 merger into a single tier will mean that random daily dungeons will be more varied as many rarely visited T1 experts appear in the rotation again.
• Master Mode dungeons have been added, they are very challenging, have extra bosses, and reward a T2 level raid token (or multiple T1 or dungeon tokens).
• LFD tool to help you get into dungeons, gives additional daily rewards (upto seven days worth can accrue so you don't miss out)

Raids:

• There are two tiers of raids, T1 Greescales Blight/River of Souls and T2 which is Hammerknell. T3 is due in the next month or two.
• There are three ten man raids. T1 are Drowned Halls and Gilded Prophecy, T2 is Rise of the Phoenix. These have unique bosses with fun mechanics and well itemised loot, 20man guilds tend to run these alongside their 20-man raids.
• You will need to do T1 to get into T2, no skipping content although gear and token rewards are stepped up to make gearing easier as time goes by so you don't lag too far behind.
• There are plenty of guilds still doing T1.
• 10man and 20man raids are completely seperate instances, and guilds tend to do both.
• Many servers are starting to see PuG raids of T1 content.

PvP:

• Many many many many many changes made to balance souls.
• Warfront Accolades: Your multikills, kill streaks and amazing last hitpoint saving heals are now announced to everyone in the warfront. Each accolade earnt gives bonus xp and prestige.
• Trion will gladly make PvP only changes!
• Much of the gear got a Valor (resilience) normalisation to reduce the gear difference between high and low rank players survivability.
• Addition stat changes are coming in 1.7 to reduce the steep increase in gear power from low to high ranking gear.
• Rank 7/8 added however...
• Ranks 1-8 will shortly become Ranks 1-40 (in 1.7) with many rank requirements gone from PvP items (excluding weapons/synergy crystals), allowing a much smoother gearing and levelling process.
• Planar Attunement tree for PvP being added in 1.7, removal of PvP soul. This allows you to create even more powerful builds, while retaining the bonuses from the PvP soul in the form of PA bonuses from the PvP PA tree.
• New warfront added, Runemasters Library, and some alternative modes added to change things around on weekends.
• World PvP exists and is driven by things like Invasions, Instant Adventures and PvP Rifts which force factions together!

Misc:

• Wardrobe feature added, you can now look awesome while wearing functional gear.
• Addons are now supported, although there are a limited number of them and the API is considered to be in beta.
• You can move server once a week, for free. Handy if your own server is too quiet, or you want a server with World PvP or more raiding guilds.
• You can now mail items and money to the opposite faction.
• Lot's of crafting items added which can help with gearing (some are in the top 3-5 for BiS), and overall a LOT of refinements to crafting (recipes, required materials etc).
• RIFT Mobile app is available on iOS and Android, allows you to chat to your guild via your phone, see a bunch of info, play some minigames for ingame rewards, etc. Oh and it is completely free!

Will update as I think of more, please feel free to suggest/ask questions about features that have updated since launch.

[Fluffygong]

Don't forget Chronicles and how many ways there are to get geared for content through different paths, planar gear, pvp gear, t2 gear and that in 1.7 they are stream lining the gear better so that getting into higher content raiding is easier. Also when doing t2 dungeons you get a choice which which currency reward you would like so you can get what you need from them. Didn't read all of your post just didn't notice anything about that.

[Cherrysoul]

Interesting, certainly sounds like they have fixeda lot of stuff, namely my two concerns when i started playing in early access was hitting a brick wall ie: 50 and there wasnt much in the way of end game, and PVP was shocking, yet i did like the maps... so def worth another look? Oh and the other thing that irked me was events/rifts because high levels would come along and basically screw the lower levels over (is that fixed?)

Great Post OP +10

[Deleted]

Interesting, certainly sounds like they have fixeda lot of stuff, namely my two concerns when i started playing in early access was hitting a brick wall ie: 50 and there wasnt much in the way of end game, and PVP was shocking, yet i did like the maps... so def worth another look? Oh and the other thing that irked me was events/rifts because high levels would come along and basically screw the lower levels over (is that fixed?)

Great Post OP +10

I recently started again, and have got to 20, I haven't seen a single high level in on the low level events/invasions. A level 50 did help us kill a level 14 invasion boss though, since only 4 people showed to kill it.

[DDazzle]

the reason the high levels would come and down the low level rifts had two reasons imo.
first was that you had to refill your charges for raid. each time you drop a rift you get one charge. this has been fixed as people just port to ember isle to get free charges.
second reason was that we use to get the event rewards for doin ght low level rifts. this has also been changed and you can only do rifts closer to your level now.
you will still find the random 50 running around trying to hurry his way to an achiev, so they may try and drop the low level rifts due to them showing up on the # of rifts they've downed.

[Fluffygong]

So many people left the game already I wonder if it's any better than it was.

Find out during the 3 days free? Not that you can do much in 3 days, there is another thread with the dates somewhere.

[Burton68Zeppelin]

Thanks for this, Tarien! If you could elaborate on some of the more significant PvP changes that have been made, that would be appreciated ^.^

I may have to give it another go. Have a max Warrior and ~20 Rogue on there currently, but haven't touched the game since the first month of release unforunately.

[Tarien]

Just eatin mah dinner, will update shortly

[russykh]

So many people left the game already I wonder if it's any better than it was.

They've spent a fair bit of effort shuffling people on servers as much as they can and trying to maintain a decent pop on a lower number of servers. Plus you can server transfer for free if your server happens to be a ghost town. You should always be able to find people to play with.

[Kalx]

I wanted to go back, but since I lost my authenticator on my old phone and they won't remove it without a call (which I can't do due to region), I gave up

[Cherrysoul]

I downloaded the client, will jump on later, i apparently have 3 days free, i thought that was starting on the 19th O.o ? or is it because i havent played so long either way, woo. I also have a level 50 so at least i have 3 days to stuff around and see what has changed

OP Yes more info on PVP would be grand, thanks a lot


ETA: Any idea what current subs are , is there a lot of players still or just a handful, anyone recommend a high pop server should my old one be dead? Aussie btw if that helps. Cheers

[Puremallace]

ETA: Any idea what current subs are , is there a lot of players still or just a handful, anyone recommend a high pop server should my old one be dead? Aussie btw if that helps. Cheers

Well avoid Wolfsbane unless you enjoy 2 hour queue times. Laethys is the Oceanic server I believe

[Cataclysmic Skyris]

i have to give it to trion...they can make a great game but still...i dont like the lore at all i like everything else but the world...the lore....i just cant get into it knowwhatimean?

[Primalthirst]

The 3 free days was given to every existing account whether active or not due to a hacking scare they had in December, to my knowledge no accounts were compromised. The 3 free days from Jan 19-22 I've forgotten the reason for, it may just be a promo. Also the population is actually about where Trion estimated it to be at launch, 17 NA servers. They just opened an extra 90 or something ridiculous during the first 2 weeks since there were so many people trying it for the first time the planned servers couldnt handle the load.

Really the number of balance changes made in PvP are almost impossible to list since it would require copy-pasting every class change from every patch notes since release. Just know that things are a lot more even than they've ever been and there non max prestige gear is getting a boost t narrow the gap shortly.

[Tarien]

Chucked up some endgame stuff, will look for more PvP stuff but honestly what do people want to know? I'm not the most PvP orientated person but if you ask I will find out.

[Cherrysoul]

The 3 free days was given to every existing account whether active or not due to a hacking scare they had in December, to my knowledge no accounts were compromised. The 3 free days from Jan 19-22 I've forgotten the reason for, it may just be a promo. Also the population is actually about where Trion estimated it to be at launch, 17 NA servers. They just opened an extra 90 or something ridiculous during the first 2 weeks since there were so many people trying it for the first time the planned servers couldnt handle the load.

Really the number of balance changes made in PvP are almost impossible to list since it would require copy-pasting every class change from every patch notes since release. Just know that things are a lot more even than they've ever been and there non max prestige gear is getting a boost t narrow the gap shortly.

Thanks + 10 char

[Fluffygong]

Isn't the free character transfer once every 7 days, not every 3?

[Deleted]

Isn't the free character transfer once every 7 days, not every 3?

Just to Confirm it is once every 7 days

[Deleted]

hmmm interesting.

I levelled my rogue up to 50 on release, and realised i couldnt be bothered with the massive grind there was then + it was lacking allot in endgame.

Sounds like this might be worth a second look, seeing as i already have a level 50 i could check out some of the new things i guess.

Will try the free weekend!

[Rabban]

I'll be checking it out this weekend, as I just cancelled my SWTOR subscription. Have not played since March of last year. Level 50 mage.