Rift - Character Builds

[Simca]

Rift - Character Builds

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Please use this thread to discuss everything Race, Calling, and Soul related in Rift.

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[georgevonfranken]

This is very helpful

Simca Edit: Thumbnail'd.

[Jademist]

And so begins the disappearance of the "freedom to choose whatever build you want" type of thing in lieu of FOTM and "optimal builds" that will beat others and people will start QQing about why their specs aren't as powerful as others...and PvP imbalances. :/

That is the one thing I was worried about the most about Rift. That the freedom of choosing your builds will come at a price. With some builds being extremely powerful while others being extremely underpowered. So...freedom has a price. You get to choose what ever you want but you will suffer in the game when it comes to PvP and even raiding.

[Simca]

georgevonfranken: Awesome picture - thanks a bunch for posting that.

istheshiz: I'm actually okay with that, personally.

The constant attempts for 'perfect balance' are quite frankly, getting a little bit old in WoW.

[Migey]

I played Rift Beta only a very small bit, so i didn't get much of an idea of the game, other then there is little difference between many Rogue souls.

What i can say by looking at that chart is that there is alot of wasted potential. Also, i hear you end up with 75 points in the end to spend across three trees? I get the feeling that most people would function almost exactly the same with only two trees.

The wasted potential is in the lack of different roles. There are alot of potentially awesome roles out there, like ones that exist SOLELY for support, or other such things, but that are of course impractical due to them being useless for soloing. Since you can have three souls, it appears to me that it would pay to have some more imaginative roles, more imaginative support souls, etc.

This said, i still think Rift looks brilliant, and i am bored to tears with WoW, so il probably quit soon.

Although nobody can compare thier graphics, really. Its sort of like comparing Zelda : Wind Waker to Zelda : Twilight Princess. Maybe a little less drastic, but same principle - they are not trying to acheive the same thing, they are trying to achieve different looks, and both succeed.


Edit : What i think would work brilliantly is for the trees to sprawl out a little more, with the abilities you get for spending points in the first place not being on a set line, but perhaps branching a little, either based on WHAT you pick (as opposed to picking in the first place...), or an active choice - and the trees with a few more talents out to the sides, with more connection - so you cant choose most talents without having a specific set of earlier talents. Also, more points, maybe 100? And a penalty for having too many points more in one tree then another. The system at its concept is great, but still has alot of wasted potential - this is what it needs, something completely defining that seperates its gameplay from WoW - not a vaguely interest system that doesnt fully explore itself. Also, as to what i said about people being able to function the same with two trees? For some classes, this is not of course true, however due to the lack of enough points to spend, it could be seen that way, and is for some soul combos and classes.

[probert]

And so begins the disappearance of the "freedom to choose whatever build you want" type of thing in lieu of FOTM and "optimal builds" that will beat others and people will start QQing about why their specs aren't as powerful as others...and PvP imbalances. :/

That is the one thing I was worried about the most about Rift. That the freedom of choosing your builds will come at a price. With some builds being extremely powerful while others being extremely underpowered. So...freedom has a price. You get to choose what ever you want but you will suffer in the game when it comes to PvP and even raiding.

The game was always going to end up with a gradual selection of preferred / optimal builds, especially in relation to role. A beastmaster warrior could never be as good at tanking as a reaver or paladin for example.

But there are lots of options available; warriors have 4 tank possibilities, and clerics and rogues can also tank.

As it stands, i think people will have one primary build... its the secondary souls and abilities you chose that will bring the flavor.

And as for pvp, you'll *never* know what you're facing. Kill the healer...oh crap the chloromancer is a dominator too. That saboteur isn't as squishy as I though, he's got tank talents... etc. I see the flexibility of the system preventing definitive pvp comps at end game -- that's the biggest advantage.

[Lane]

Is there a mage soul combination that works well for getting contribution? Mine's currently a Pyromancer and due to my only two instant casts having 8 second cooldowns and my main nuke having a 2 second cast time I really struggle to get into gold contribution, if I make it at all.

[roboscorcher]

I'm going to wait and see how PvP vids turn out before I plunk money down on Rift. The builds have potential for some crazy comps, but I have a feeling it will still be FOTM comps winning out because most players will follow the popular build rather than try something completely new. We'll see how it pans out, I guess.

[georgevonfranken]

The constant attempts for 'perfect balance' are quite frankly, getting a little bit old in WoW.

^ This. Im tired of every patch having a new best spec, when its really doing about the same has the best spec from last patch but that spec got nerfed so far into the ground.

OT heres some of my rogue specs
Nightblade PVE
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0M...M.iItMhqgMos.V
Night PVP
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0M...Ros.xx0M0c0V0z
I have 2 different tanking builds
Maximum hp:http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0M...EItIuqdRkkR.xb
Maximum avoidance:http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0M...EItIuqdRkkR.xh
Not much of a difference ya
Bard support
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0M...h.EIdqiqskqz.M
Wasnt sure about my third soul for bard, because at max lvl the 0 point pet would be like 30 or so and would instantly die

@Migey if you think theres little to no difference between rogue souls then you had little to no experience with rogue souls

[treston323]

I was a Paladin/Paragon/RiftBlade as a tank. Was very easy when I played the beta.

[luccadeo]

I loved the Necro/Lock/Chlor build in beta. I think I'm going to stick with that on live.

[Aviel]

I have to agree with a couple of above posts...there is no way there isn't going to be an 'optimum' build for each class that will very soon turn cookie cutter - which kind of blows the originality of this game. It'll turn into WoW with twice as many talents in that regard before it's over, I think.

[Rocketsurgeon]

The idea is that while there are optimal builds, there are several optimal builds instead of single optimal builds. The wide range of choices between not only your own spec options but your party's allows for more variety in an attempt to optimize. What it boils down to is viability though. You want to always be able to build a strong group with the people and classes at your disposal.

Having a tank with the most survivability doesn't offer any benefit if the heals and support are strong enough to keep up a tank with points in Beastmaster or some other dps spec to speed the run along. Likewise, a tri-heals build will be overkill and you'll wind up sitting on your hands while the bard, chloro, or just does half the work. So you have an optimal build for group scenario A, an optimal build for group scenario B, one for C, and a solo/fun build. Its not quite the doomsday scenario people paint it to be.

EDIT: That chart is great for adding in the "0"s. Much better than the previous one I had seen.

[Narghile]

It's my belief that RIFT will be bringing back the need for synergy.
Which has been lost in many MMOs.

So what is lost in MAX DPS or MAX healing in a spec can be made up by adding Synergy (Buffs,CC, etc..)

[DerpderpHAMMA]

http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=1z...Meo00Vqzbz.Vtc

i love this build so damned MUCH. This is what drives me to play rift

http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=00...ExzxtrsAo.xhMo

a little shaman heavy but ehh the shaman talents are all nice

http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=1c...sMM.Euqthzkhfo

warrior tank that is effective at aoe tanking bc im not a good mt

no rogue because rogues are not appealing to me

[Migey]

@Migey if you think theres little to no difference between rogue souls then you had little to no experience with rogue souls

Actually, i've tried most of them.

I admit i said that a little fast. They arn't all the same, but alot of abilities overlap, particuarly in the early game, which can be confusing. The further you get into any tree, the more different the abilities become of course, and many souls start out with completely different abilities to begin with, but many can feel the same, and to me, there wasn't enough distinction between some of them to warrent one ability or the other even being present. Of course every soul needs it bread and butter combo point builder, but they could make them a little more distinctive.

Edit : I am still 100% positive they didn't explore the full potential of thier own system. With the idea that every class can have three souls, oh, the things one could do. I myself can think up a few basic examples that could be very, very interesting, and make facets of the gameplay very unique.

[Rocketsurgeon]

Individual souls tend to come with default attacks that can function on their own. So a low level character will have several default attacks. Depending on his spec some will rise in power and others will be left behind. This is left up to you. The complaints about confusion boggle me coming from the uproar about how WoW was dumbing everything down.
If you're level 4 and don't know which button to push, you're unlikely to hit the wrong one. By level 8 you should have selected enough talents to make it obvious which buttons you're going to push. Its not terribly complicated and if you change your mind on an idea you had you've got more than a dozen levels of free respecs with easy access to the other souls before you leave the first world zone.

There are, of course, more things one could try to do with allowing each player to select 3 individual ability trees. I imagine if you asked them they'd tell you that the design they went with was shaped much like their dynamic content. You start with something revolutionary and pretty unique, and then shape it down into what is practical and fun. Sometimes the destination is closer to home than we first suspect.

[AdrianCC100]

Bard was the first class I ever played in a MMO. To bad I am not interested in buying this game, otherwise I would have rolled a Bard.

[Deleted]

Aye thanks for the picture. I'm going bard myself and god, it looks like I would like a few alts ^^

Bard and monk are my all time favorite classes, a shame monk wasn't implemented in Rift

[unkn0wnerr0r]

And so begins the disappearance of the "freedom to choose whatever build you want" type of thing in lieu of FOTM and "optimal builds" that will beat others and people will start QQing about why their specs aren't as powerful as others...and PvP imbalances. :/

That is the one thing I was worried about the most about Rift. That the freedom of choosing your builds will come at a price. With some builds being extremely powerful while others being extremely underpowered. So...freedom has a price. You get to choose what ever you want but you will suffer in the game when it comes to PvP and even raiding.

Actually they have already said they will not allow that to happen. If some particular build becomes better than all the rest of that calling they will deal with it by adjusting other parts of the calling. I like it, the way they fixed things for the headstart shows they will do the balancing much better than any other game I've played. They won't nerf anything to the ground like some idiots, but they still listen to their players.

For the OP good links

http://rift.zam.com/
has a talent calculator built into it, also has dev trackers for official rift info

http://www.riftjunkies.com/
very much the mmo-champion for rift. Has lots of good information. The equivalent of blue tracker etc.

I hope you will put those links in the first post.