Thinking about starting up my Rift account again

[Azeryx]

So this forum probably gets tons of these threads but, I've lingered around from the game for awhile. My highest toon was a level 30 Warrior-something. It just felt too WoW-ish. Then I began looking around on YouTube and most are saying that you don't really recognize the difference between WoW and Rift until around level 50. So, I decided to go ahead and just start up fresh with a new Rogue toon, seeming how that's what I'm enjoying in WoW at the moment. Also, I just don't want to be joining in late on a dying game.. I know Trion doesn't release their playerbase, but, just so I know where to start, what's the most populated US server for Guardian and for Defiant? (not sure what faction I want to roll with) If someone could answer these questions, it'd be greatly appreciated.

[Lathais]

Population is fine, it is nowhere near dieing. Look in the Volan thread and you'll see 150+ people participating in a zone event in off-peak hours. During peak there can be over 300 showing up to that event. When CQ pops, you see it fill up fast, with 200 people per team that's 600 people, usually more waiting to get in.

Most populated US? I think most are fairly populated, but you'll find a lot of the regular posters here on Deepwood, though not all. Faeblight, Greybriar and Laethys are all well populated as well. Rift has higher server capacities than most games, that's why you see only a few servers, but they are packed and you will see lots of people in to 50+ zones. The leveling zones can be kinda dead, but as I am leveling my 30ish alt, I still see people out and leveling. I see several guilds that are there assisting new players as well, and they appear to be pretty active.

As for which faction, unless you play on Seastone, the PvP server, it doesn't make a difference. You can talk, trade, group and guild with the opposite faction. The only thing you can't do is go into their capital city. However, once you get to 50+ and go to the new continents, there is a shared major city anyway.

[RoninaThorstone]

The 1-50 was my least favorite part of Rift. Like, I IA'd from 35 to 50. I just wanted to get it over with.
That said. Level 50 was amazing for the short time I was 50. I got to do a bunch of t1 content before SL.
50 to 60 was a long and extremely rewarding climb. I loved it. The stories were good and worth reading and the questing was extremely intuitive. There was 0 back tracking.
At 60? I am even more blown away than ever. The gearing up process is both fun and interesting, for me at least. Being able to evolve your gear with stones is fantastic. Right now I am about 150 IS from my hero bow (rest of my gear is event (expert quality, 1 evolution up) or slayer token (expert quality) and I only started SL earlier this month.) Since I am still very much a noob in rifts I feel that I can say, if it was this easy for me it shouldn't be hard for you.

If you have a level 30 something, I would just grit your teeth and IA to 50. Then sit back and enjoy the glorious ride.

As to the population. All signs point toward growth. They sold like 13% more copies of SL then they thought they would and the servers seem jam packed. On deepwood (where I am) its not unusual to see 300-400 people on a Volan fight (world boss thing)

---------- Post added 2013-01-23 at 02:45 AM ----------

Population is fine, it is nowhere near dieing. Look in the Volan thread and you'll see 150+ people participating in a zone event in off-peak hours. During peak there can be over 300 showing up to that event. When CQ pops, you see it fill up fast, with 200 people per team that's 600 people, usually more waiting to get in.

If anything... There might be too many people on deepwood.

[Azeryx]

Sweet! I'll definitely look into renewing my sub and buying SL. But I probably won't purchase SL until I get 50 lol. Also going to look for some class guides too. Considering either Rogue or Warrior. But that's later stuff. Thanks hk & Lathias, will stick around on the forums too.

[Lathais]

Sweet! I'll definitely look into renewing my sub and buying SL. But I probably won't purchase SL until I get 50 lol. Also going to look for some class guides too. Considering either Rogue or Warrior. But that's later stuff. Thanks hk & Lathias, will stick around on the forums too.

Especially if you are playing Rogue or Warrior I would consider picking up SL ASAP. The new soul trees are insanely fun. For Rouges you get Tactician, they have flamethrowers. Warriors get Tempest, they get to toss lightning around like a mage. Tact is an excellent AoE grind/leveling spec capable of taking on 4-5 mobs at a time several levels above you. Plus, come on, flame thrower. You know you want it.

Edit: Just saw that read 45 mobs and should have said 4-5. No class can take on 45 mobs above their level at once that I know of. I'm sure you knew what I meant though.

[RoninaThorstone]

Tact is an excellent AoE grind/leveling spec capable of taking on 45 mobs at a time several levels above you. Plus, come on, flame thrower. You know you want it.

Also, leveling with the self healing core? OMG. Why didn't I do that sooner. Ugh. Its so insanely good.