hardcore raider looking for some insight into rift and SL

[drtrann]

hey guys,

so back when rift launched, i raided with aigis and got world 2-3rd progression through greenscale. after that i had to withdraw from raiding because a close family member became terminally ill. i stopped raiding hard core and only recently returned to the game to try TL.

so to my questions:

Im playing a cleric now (glutton for punishment). will ranged clerics be viable dps come SL? i keep reading mixed reports, but the consensus seems to be that warriors are still going to be vastly ahead of other classes.

if i want to play dps in a competitive raid team, will i basically be forced to play warrior?

what are the barriers to entry in hardcore raiding in rift? as i've been away for a while the etiquette has obviously changed. i have raided hardcore in both wow (top 50) and rift (top 2-3) but have been casual for the last year and thus dont have current demonstration of my ability as a player.

how is rift's raid content? when my guild stopped playing after greenscale, most of them complained about bugged/oversimplified mechanics (having trouble with a mechanic, bring more warriors and dps past it)

these are the ones that come to mind right now, and i would really appreciate some insight from people who might know the answers.

thank you,

drtrann

[Fencers]

The expansion will have a gear reset so the barrier to entry will basically be "level 60/X hit" from scratch. Some of that blue gear is better than t1 raid gear. Raiding guilds in Rift behave the same as rading guilds in every other MMO since EQ. There is no real difference; be prepared, show up on time, don't goof around, learn the fights, blah blah. Same as every guild.

The raids got far more complex and lengthier than GSB. The quality is among the best that I've played in MMOs. They sorta set up the difficulty by turns as well. HK was a big jump over GSB and RoS [entry raids]. They followed it up with both 10 and 20 discrete raid instances.

Again, among the best raiding in the business right now.

I only play a Warrior. No comment on other "classes".

[Antipathy]

I think someone like Seatin (who is in the world 2nd guild atm) would probably shed the best insights on cleric dps in raids, but 1.11 introduced significant changes, with cabalist and shaman clerics receiving some major overhauls.

As fencers mentioned above, a huge reset will be pressed with the launch of Storm Legion in just a few days, so this is the ideal time to return if your aim is to raid hardcore.

and yes, Raids are the very best in the business.

[Azuri]

This is the previous raid tier but this video is well done and gives you a good insight of the instance and raid fight quality you can expect from Rift. Lots of attention to detail.

[Primalthirst]

I could talk the leg off a table about class balance in the upcoming expansion but I'll limit myself, for everyone's sanity.

The intention is that on a dummy Melee builds will be ~5% ahead of Ranged builds, this is to compensate for melee disconnect and target movement in actual encounters. So if you're playing bleeding edge you will be probably have to play melee, either Druid or Shaman on a Patchwerk style encounter. Other encounters may be less melee friendly so in those you would be expected to play Ranged specs such as Inquisitor or Cabalist.

Right now on Beta, both Rogue and Cleric dps specs are hitting their goals and are exactly where they are supposed to be. Mages for the most part are also there, although 1 or 2 specs need a slight nerf. Warrior on the other hand is just plain overpowered right now, to the point that some top guilds are contemplating raid compositions with 7+ Warrior DPS and as little as 2-3 Clerics and Rogues in total. This should change, and hopefully will before SL goes Live next week, if not it should be fixed within the first two weeks of the expansion before most people are even at 60 and into raids. Believe me when I say pretty much every person in Alpha is hammering the devs about the state of Warrior DPS, no-one is happy about it.

As for the quality of raids, superb. If at all possible I strongly urge you to join a Hammerknell PuG this week if you can and make sure you experience Akylios, the final boss. That encounter is just flat-out the best one I've seen in any MMO, and a helluva lot of people agree with me.

[Deleted]

Im playing a cleric now (glutton for punishment). will ranged clerics be viable dps come SL? i keep reading mixed reports, but the consensus seems to be that warriors are still going to be vastly ahead of other classes.

At the moment, clerics are a 'bit' behind other classes in the endgame scene on Storm Legion, As stated on a 'patchwerk' type fight Melee specs come out on top, While not have an 'extensive' knowledge of clerics in Storm Legion, it seems that Shaman is coming out ontop dps wise in terms of cleric specs, Warriors are quite a bit ahead of everyone else at the moment, which I expect to be ammended shortly.

what are the barriers to entry in hardcore raiding in rift? as i've been away for a while the etiquette has obviously changed. i have raided hardcore in both wow (top 50) and rift (top 2-3) but have been casual for the last year and thus dont have current demonstration of my ability as a player.

Entry to actually get into the raids is a certian amount of Hit or Focus
Entry to be in a top guild and succeed in raiding is the constant willingness to improve your character and understanding of all the different specs you can use, A lot of guilds value high flexibility within a player, This is because the amount of Healers, Tanks and Dps you need for fights vary, and you also need different people doing different roles. If your just a dps cleric, from my perspective as a ex-raid leader this really narrows my options when it comes to switching certain people around for fights. But then again if you can excel at DPS cleric specs and regularly come out on top on boss fights, then yes, you would be the last person I ask to heal

how is rift's raid content? when my guild stopped playing after greenscale, most of them complained about bugged/oversimplified mechanics (having trouble with a mechanic, bring more warriors and dps past it)

Amazing.



Your in for an even bigger shock come Storm Legion.

[drtrann]

thank you all for the information.

right now im still playing around with classes, trying to figure out what to play. this week i got my warrior and mage to lvl 50 so now its a toss up on whats going to be a good class come launch. mind correcting any misconceptions that i have.

cleric: i enjoy playing inquisitor and consider myself a proficient purifier,senticar,warden depending on the situation, but i tend to find healing far to easy and a small amoutn boring (probably because i only really healed 5 mans).

rogue: this is what i played when i raided hardcore. the idea of playing sabo or bard would likely cause the death of several small children but i really enjoyed playing assassin. last i read assassin is competitive nowadays and if it remains close to optimal i could live with rogue. my ultimate fear though is that the inevitable will happen and i'll be asked to jump into bard for every 5 man and every raid and that's something im not entirely cool with. (usually i put the needs of the raid over my personal feelings, but if i wanted to hit the 1-5 buttons repeatedly im sure i would find something that flashed pictures of cats at me once i complete the 1-5 sequence.

warrior: warriors are interesting, i have only recently hit max level and thus havnt really had the opportunity to play it that much, but they are tempting. with tempest coming out, that would give me a ranged option thats progression viable for those fights that dont favor melee and would almost be guaranteeing that if i play dps i wont be holding back the raid on dps checks (honestly one of my biggest pet peeves of all time, playing near perfect and pushing the theoretical output of the class, and still doing less then other classes just playing average) but there is question about nerfs after launch, and while im fine with balancing, its a coin toss. either trion just keeps warriors competitive, or they overshoot it and warriors become the new cleric. i dont have enough experience with trion to judge their ability, but i know clerics dont have a high opinions of the devs and warriors have enjoyed a long period of exceptional dps, whats to stop them from accidentally undertuning them and just leaving them there?

mages: i have spent almost no time on my mage and honestly have no real feeling either way. i probably need to spend more time doing research on the class before i post my opinions and make myself look like an asshat

thank you for your answers i do appreciate them

[Primalthirst]

Healing is much more technical in endgame encounters, especially since AoE healing has been substantially nerfed. You need to really be on the ball.

Bard has had a significant rewrite, playing it is now significantly more complex than it has traditionally been. I think you'd find it a different beast if you did play it.

[DeltrusDisc]

This is the previous raid tier but this video is well done and gives you a good insight of the instance and raid fight quality you can expect from Rift. Lots of attention to detail.

I can never get over how damned well-done this video is.

Seriously, it's amazing.