There's a thread for new MMOs for 2011, but I thought that Rift deserved its own thread considering we're a week away from head start and less than two weeks away from go live.

hxxp://www.riftgame.com

What is it? It's a very technically solid, fun fantasy MMO. On first glance, it appears to be a WoW clone. In many ways, it is. Crafting, UI and hotkeys all are directly taken from WoW. Questing seems like it was taken from WoW, circa-2005. It also has a good mix of EQ2 (collections) and WAR (PvP) thrown in to boot, which isn't surprising since many EQ2 and WAR developers now work on Rift. When I first played it, I wasn't sold on it. I was kind of burnt out on the general MMO mechanic and had given up on MMOs, finally quitting LOTRO and WoW. It's grown on me since and now I'm really looking forward to release.

It's grown on me because:

1. It's fundamentally sound - the first MMO in a long time to be released in a stable state. I've had very few issues with Rift, even since Beta 4 (now on Beta 7). Questing, PvE instances, Warfronts (PvP scenarios), Rifts...they all work very well. I'm sure there are issues, but so far I haven't seen class imbalances like Bright Wizards in WAR. I've had 30-40 people onscreen at one time with no problems and no lag. The damn game just works.

2. It's fun. Read my story below for more details, but I can say it's a good time. The gameplay is derivative, no doubt. If you're entirely burnt on the MMO mechanic, this won't change your mind. But there's always something to do. Don't feel like questing? Then just go do Rifts - I gained 4 levels relatively quickly by doing so - or head into the Warfronts. I've never felt bored or trapped.

3. The soul mechanic is a blast. Essentially, souls are talent trees. But instead of choosing between 3, the 4 classes in the game each have 8 talent trees. You can pick 3 pretty early in and customize your character. Later on (level 14), you can buy secondary specs (eventually up to 4 specs) and do quests to get the other talent trees in your class. And you can use any 3 souls you have access to (remember, there's 8) in any given spec. So you can configure your cleric from being a pure healer to swapping to an anti-caster PvP spec to a ranged DPS machine to a cleric tank. The flexibility is enormous and you can really configure your class to play the way you want to play. Do you want a healing/buffing rogue who can lay traps? It's in there. A marksman who can vanish? Yep. A healing mage with a lot of DOTS? Sure.

4. Rifts & Dynamic Game World. Rifts are portals that open that will have mobs rush through it. They act like Public Quests from WAR, but they're more spontaneous. Plus, sometimes it's not just one Rift - as I said, read on.

Ok, so what's it like? I logged on this AM to find everything peaceful in the Sanctum (level 8-20) zone. I helped close a rift or two (jumping into public groups when they spawned) and everything seemed fine. Then, the smell of brimstone wafted across the air and all hell broke loose. Within two minutes there were over 20 Fire Rifts open and fire invasions were all over the place. Mobs were pouring out of rifts and taking over the towns of the zone. Those of us in the zone fought back, but the fire troops were too many and they took control of the zone with the exception of a couple of wardstones keeping the mobs from invading Sanctum (main Guardian city in the game - think Stormwind). It was pretty epic.

At the height of the fire invasion, we heard another cry throughout the zone and life rifts started popping everywhere. Major life and fire invasions started competing for control of the zone and our guardian defenses were shattered with the help of a 3rd (defiant) invasion. The wardstones at Sanctum were destroyed and suddenly a major rift appeared in the middle of Sanctum. Two massive life mobs spawned from the rift in town and the next thing we knew, the forces of life were literally running amuck in the city. We fought back and killed those two massive mobs with a coordinated effort, then turned to the entry bridge to the city to fight off the invasion forces converging on Sanctum.

Outside the town, a huge scrum involving fire, defiant, life and guardian forces took place. If the other invasions hadn't attacked each other, we'd have been wiped off the map. But they fought and weakened each other for us to start to get the upper hand. We slowly beat back the other three forces and the zone started to quiet down again. We probably fought at least 20-30 invasion groups at the doorstep to Sanctum, but our lines held. Even after we beat back the invasion forces, it still took a while to close most of the rifts and the whole damn thing was epic as hell. I gained two levels (14-16) with that character just in those fights. Frankly, that was some of the most fun I've had in any MMO in many years.



So, if this sounds like the game for you, either message me here or just apply to the guild I belong to at hxxp://www.alloutassault.net/. Reference my name during your application (yes, it's the same as it is here) and so long as you're 18, you should get in. We're going to be playing on a PvP server (it's the right choice for this game and I'm not a big PvP fan), guardian side (because we like being outnumbered).

I've played in the last 3 betas and am enjoying it immensely. I'm in for the head start w/ a small group of friends, though I don't think we've decided on pvp vs pve server or defiant vs guardian. I have avoided leveling anything up past 20 yet as i don't want to see too much of the world in a beta, my only concern is the "open pvp vs scenarios (warfronts)" issue that plagued Warhammer, where the game was designed around contested open world pvp zones, but a majority of the players found it more efficient to grind scenarios for their pvp points all day long. I forsee a similar problem here, and so far I do compare the game design to Warhammer a lot more than WoW, though really both borrowed most of their designs and UI and all that from WoW of course. But the things that Rift is saying will make it unique are very similar to the things the Warhammer folks said would make it stand out. Rifts are PQs but better, Warfronts are pvp scenarios, and most of the high level zones it sounds like are contested pvp zones.


I have high hopes for it, I like the Soul system, I am definitely playing a mage but can't for the life of me decide which class setup I want to play in pvp, dungeons, levelling, etc. Pyromancer, Warlock and Chloromancer all really intrigue me. I took my Chloro into pvp and love how that works (its a healing mage, it doesn't do a ton of damage compared to pure damage mages but almost all of the damage you do will heal everyone in your group/raid that's nearby). But I love the high damage of a Pyro and the stick and move dot the hell out of everyone warlock style too.

Looking forward to it!

I've been playing in the last few Rifts betas myself, and I too came into it with dubious thoughts about its potential. But also like you, its grown on me and I'm impressed with how polished it is already is a week from launch. You don't hear much criticism of the game in chat, and believe me you would if there were problems, and the biggest criticism is that its a WoW clone. If that's the worse criticism, the game can't be that bad. I'm actually considering purchasing it despite financial woes because its grown on me that much.

One of my biggest concerns coming into the beta was that the rifts themselves would be one giant lag-fest. There was some bad lag the first beta I was in, but since then there's been almost none. And they have public groups available to join once you get close to the rift. Just click the button and youre in a public group-no shouting and spamming chat looking for groups to join during a rift event. It was a pleasure. And the game itself is very stable. I'm not even sure we had a crash that brought the game down-only when the mods wanted to add a patch.

I like too how they have the rifts staged-you defeat the mobs in the first stage and you move on till you fight a boss monster. And the rifts events like Blackadar mentioned are just wild. You get warning one is coming when horns sound throughout the zone and various bad guys voices telling you you are all about to be dead. Then some NPC's start calling out asking for help defending their areas. Rifts open all over and mobs don't just stay in the rift area, they start running in packs through out the zone. And the best part? you get loot after the rift is closed/event is over-and usually elite money to buy other elite (planar) items.

I like the crafting set up so far though I haven't devoted much time to it-that's another way to take a break from questing/rifting-go make stuff and catch your breath. Several of the crafts are interconnected and you can train in three of the eight or so crafts out there-you can mine ore for your mining craft and use that ore in weaponsmith and armorsmith crafts for example.

I was most dubious about being able to use skills from 3 souls (classes) and if the beta is how its going to work in the real game, I hope they push back when you get access to the second and third soul. That's because the soul trees are so large and many of the skills you can pick up on them consist of 3-5 levels-like add 1% to damage for one soul point-and there'd be five levels you could get for a total of 5% damage. But at least in the beta by the time you get five soul points, you've gained access to the second soul tree and almost the third. There's just too much to choose from, which is kind of odd to say is a problem. I'd like to develop my primary soul for a while because that's the class I'm going to be most interested in playing, then say level 10 and level 20 maybe get the second and third souls.

And perhaps best of all no cartoon graphics like WoW-I would call it very detailed artwork-take a look at your shield and weapons as you get new ones and see how detailed and different looking they are from each other. And get someplace high where you can look down or across at a rift in the process of opening...wow you just know your about to be in deep do-do when the skies just begins to open up and this long arm of fire, plant life, black death arms, etc start coming out of it.

I havent done the PvP thing because its just not my thing, but the game's backstory sets up the two sides quite nicely especially on the defiants side (don't want to ruin the surprise there-but wait till you see where you start out). The initial quests especially draw you in, making it seem like you are the key hero the world has been waiting for despite the fact that 50 gazillion other Ascended are right there with you doing the same missions.

I'm not one of these players who calculate damage and nitpick over what every skill does or is supposed to do for you in the game or if every skill and class is balanced, I just go and play. So there may be some problems with the game along those lines, but right now the game is ready to play and a heck of a lot of fun.

Now if you excuse me, I think I'll go play some more. ;)

oh forgot to mention-If I do get the game, I likely will be a rogue with marksman as the main class probably a pet class second (ranger I think is rogue?). I've always preferred a ranged class in MMO's over a tank. But I've tried all four main classes so I could see what the souls were like and no doubt my "alt-itis" will kick in and soon enough I will have at least one character in each group.

Another plus for some people is that there are benefits to those that like wandering around exploring the landscape. I'm not one to do this but a friend of mine is and I followed her along a mountain range the other day picking up artifacts*** on the ground and found a couple spots where you can simply loot a green/blue item out of a hidden cairn. There are puzzles that can be found that you can do that yield some sort of loot that we've read about on the forums as well.


I took a few screenshots riding along the mountain ridge that I liked, I didn't shrink them at all so i'm just linking them, not putting them in tags:

http://fbcb-fofc.com/img/bfg.jpg

http://fbcb-fofc.com/img/gloamwood.jpg <-- overlooking the next zone which is a darker forest apparently. I haven't been yet but it was cool overlooking the gloomy landscape from the edge of my happy little 1-20 zone.

http://fbcb-fofc.com/img/silverwood.jpg


I've been playing lotro which has an incredible high res client, so its a big step down from that. But I'm waaaay more about content than graphics so this is quite acceptable.


*** artifacts/collections are items you can pick up and find that get stored on your character. when you complete a collection you can turn it in for a reward. My favorite is "critter tears", you know the level 1 cats and dogs and deer and squirrels and such that you see taking up the landscape in any game? Yeah, kill them and they may drop a "deer tear" for your collection :D

nice screenshots there radii-they have some pretty wacky mounts-love the turtle and saw an antelope looking one. I haven't been able to afford any yet. :(

Cool pics Radii. Might take a break from LOTRO when this comes out.

http://fbcb-fofc.com/img/riftboss.jpg

When I logged on today tehre was a massive life rift invasion taking place in Silverwood. I was lucky enough to be near most of the key bosses throughout it, this is one of the last guys we killed to close everything off. I had some lag during this one, my casting and movement was just fine, but mobs and friendly players coming into focus was happening very late, often I couldn't see anyone more than 10 meters away or so and by the time i could see a mob right in front of me it was 25% dead at times.

holy crap that's a lot of hit points on that boss. No wonder it takes 15 minutes or so to kill one. I think that's one thing they need to improve. I actually got bored today and left the battle with the Iron golem boss because it was just taking too long to kill him.

Well I'm playing in my 3rd Beta event. And I've already preordered the Collector's Edition, so I get to be a part of the Head Start as well. I've safely tucked away my LOTRO characters, and am looking forward to exploring all that Telara has to offer. I've created 15 different character/soul combinations, and like someone else said, I haven't gone over Level 20. I'm still not sure which one my primary will be.

I had some spare change from my fantasy football winnings, so I preordered and paid for the cheaper six month contract. I'm that pleased with how the beta has gone and figure I will at least give it six months. If things go to hell it won't be money I'll miss.

Blackadar, I too want to play on a PVP server so I will most likely just jump on whichever server you guys end up on. I also prefer Guardians for the underdog factor. I'm a little short on time now, but I'll check out the guild site before launch.

Just pre-ordered and went with the 6 month payment option. What server are you guys on?

The Retail client for Rift is now available here if you preordered from Trion or otherwise want to download it. They suggest you uninstall the beta client if you downloaded it from them. You may not need to do this with Steam. The Head Start begins on Thursday.

RIFT - Head Start (http://www.riftgame.com/en/headstart/index.php)

I played several of the Beta events, and liked the game, but got sidetracked by other things. There were a lot of things I liked about the game, but I also have questions about how longlived this will be. Right now I'm playing WoW, but I'm thinking of trying Rift. Is there some option for FOFC people getting together in game? I'd like to find a nice guild.

I haven't received my email yet, but I downloaded the install file and installed. I'm getting a 2002 error though when I try to download the game files.

I haven't received my email yet, but I downloaded the install file and installed. I'm getting a 2002 error though when I try to download the game files.

Raiders,

The error is because the head start hasn't started yet, you'll be able to download then. I ordered through Steam and got my preorder code right from the patcher, which I thought was kinda neat, especially the option to copy the code to the clipboard so I just had to paste it in my account page to activate it.

oh and yes that means after fretting about the cost, I went ahead and got it anyway. :)

I'm up for a fofc group informal or formal-server names aren't out yet last I looked, but I would prefer a PvE one cause I suck at PvP.

Server names are out:

Incompatible Browser | Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/RIFTgame?sk=app_7146470109#!/notes/rift/official-rift-server-list/188785987828536)

PVP RP anyone?

Have at thee, scoundrel! *turns on autoattack*

One of these days, Dark Age of Camelot 2 will be made.

And I will be happy.

One of these days, Dark Age of Camelot 2 will be made.

And I will be happy.

Yeah - we all thought that is what Warhammer Online would be, and were cruelly disappointed.

Have to correct my earlier posting, you should be able to download sometime tonight and you'll get an email letting you know as well as it being announced on their forums and Facebook.

it should be available now. There is also a new link to a manual on the patcher which I have downloaded but not looked at yet.

Yeah - we all thought that is what Warhammer Online would be, and were cruelly disappointed.

Ayup.

Personally, I think the formula for an awesome large-scale PvP/RvR type game is incredibly simple. Just do not get why it hasn't happened.

Really, just give me two things.

1) 3 unique factions. This is what every RvR game since DAoC has lacked. And it's what makes it.

2) No instanced PvP. At all. Ever.

Everything else beyond that is negotiable and gravy.

Could me as another who was burnt out on MMO's but this game is really fun. The last day of Beta I was involved in a large Fire Rift invasion that took a group of 25-30 of us nearly an hour to defeat, I actually progressed an entire level (14-15) during the battle. The Rifts can definitely get intense and chaotic, great fun.

I also love the flexibility with your character and the different types of currencies you need to collect to buy different things.

So what do people think will be their "main" character? I'm going Rogue-Marksman-Ranger-????. I had Saboteur here in the beta, but didn't really like it, and didn't test any of the other souls.

Need to pick a server for the FOFC to invade still-I still prefer a PvE one-Greybriar or Keenblade sound the coolest to me. :) But any of them are fine with me really.

and of course Guardian or Defiant

So what do people think will be their "main" character? I'm going Rogue-Marksman-Ranger-????. I had Saboteur here in the beta, but didn't really like it, and didn't test any of the other souls.
That's gonna be my main too. This is the style of character I enjoy the most, so that's what I will create. I am afraid that we will not be the only two with these as their main build. It seems to be a popular combo. So I am also inclined to create a "main alt". Probably a Warrior.

I've never really played PvP, but am looking forward to trying it out with Rift. Seems like Defiant is the overwhelming choice, so I will probably go Guardian. I was reading the other day that 3 factions would possibly solved imbalance issues. Maybe a 3rd one will join the fray in a future expansion...

Sorry. I should have included I'm leaning towards Riftstalker as my 3rd soul. I love the Planar Shift ability.

That's gonna be my main too. This is the style of character I enjoy the most, so that's what I will create. I am afraid that we will not be the only two with these as their main build. It seems to be a popular combo. So I am also inclined to create a "main alt". Probably a Warrior.

I've never really played PvP, but am looking forward to trying it out with Rift. Seems like Defiant is the overwhelming choice, so I will probably go Guardian. I was reading the other day that 3 factions would possibly solved imbalance issues. Maybe a 3rd one will join the fray in a future expansion...

I was looking through the rogue soul choices earlier, and I thought I might try Riftstalker as my third soul as well. Great minds think alike right? :) I no doubt with have many alts so can play another if need be or have double marksman power for the win!

I have to say I'm surprised Defiants are more popular than Guardians. I know they have the cooler opening story, but Guardians seem more like the "good" guys here, and so I thought they would be more popular. I fine playing either, I just wanted to see what other people were thinking of playing so I could plan accordingly.

Warlock-Necro-Dominator

Pyro was a lot of fun and Chloromancer seemed really useful in a lot of situations, but I had an absolute blast the last day of beta messing around in pvp scenarios with warlock. Once I'm fully levelled up I could totally see switching to Pyromancer due to some of the CC elements that are way high up in their talent tree, but until I get there I think Warlock it is.

Its disappointing to hear that Defiant is the more popular side at this point. I played Guardian all beta and haven't touched Defiant yet, with the intent being to be able to see new stuff in final by choosing Defiant. But I don't want to get in on the side that has way more players, that's a lot less fun all the way around.

Riftstalker had some funnnnn things going on. My beta char was primarily a Nightblade/Riftstalker (I basically decided I didn't wanna put points into a 3rd soul), and it's (at least I think) a pretty good combo. Get the basic stealth, one of the better offensive classes (Nightblade), and combine it with strong defenses & teleporting. Vroom.

8.32 GB. Yikes. 7 hours remaining.

My highest character in Beta was also a Nightblade/Rifstalker(/Ranger), same thing I had only about 2 points in the third soul, mainly to get a boar to keep some aggro off of me. I got to 21 on that one.

Even after all of the betas, I am still undecided on a main. I really wanted to be a mage so I might stick to that. Rogue was fun, but I have a feeling there will be no shortage of them. Cleric is a wildcard for me as I know they will be in high demand for groups and the ones I played were not too bad. I guess the fighter is the only one I did not really play a lot. I have a feeling that I'll one of each and eventually I'll end up playing one a lot more.

Server wise I want Guardian PVP. I don't really care if it is RP or not as it seems hardly anyone roleplays anyway.

I checked out Blackadar's guild All Out Assault and they are going to play on Briarcliff as Guardian. I'm going to start there today.

I'm willing to at least try a PvP server. why don't we play there (Briarcliff) and then a PvE server too-maybe Defiants there? that gives us some options at least and lets those of us with "alt-itis" to give in to the "disease" a bit. :) I'll likely play a warrior calling on the PvP if we go that route and save the rogue calling for the PvE.

I'm willing to at least try a PvP server. why don't we play there (Briarcliff) and then a PvE server too-maybe Defiants there? that gives us some options at least and lets those of us with "alt-itis" to give in to the "disease" a bit. :) I'll likely play a warrior calling on the PvP if we go that route and save the rogue calling for the PvE.

I think thats a good idea, I am not a huge PVP guy either, but as Blackadar said this game seems made for it.

Lets decide on a PVE server we can join as well, I played on Keenblade during Beta, but have no preference.

One Million+ Acccounts opened for Rift:

1 MillionTrion Accounts! (http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?85814-1-MillionTrion-Accounts)!

hmmm 20 minutes to launch and I'm working wishing I could be playing.

I'll be on Briarcliff tonight though. Since we are starting on PVP I will be a Cleric. Now just have to decide on which souls.

Keenblade sounds as good as any for a PvE Defiant server.

I will be on as soon as the servers open. I'll likely start on Keenblade PvE as a Defiant Rogue, and try the PvP server later when more of us are likely to be on.

And true to their word the servers are up exactly on time

I went and grabbed my laptop to sign in over lunch and just create my characters so my names will be reserved.

12:05 and I am 2662 in queue, estimated wait 2 hours 16 minutes.

I've created my Rogue on Keenblade-Severian

wow Lonnie I got in right away

They have a neat thing where they announce the first player to loot a rarer item-I was the first to find the battered bow of the trickster! I'm a marksman, so I can use it, sadly its not better than the bow I got for completing my second quest. :(

just so you know they haven't changed anything to when you get your second and third souls so I have all three now-Marksman, Ranger, and Bard. I decided to go with Bard since I figure I may be grouping more than I normally would so the Bard's buffs could come in handy.

also those who paid to get the turtle mount at level 20, that has been changed so you now get it as soon as you are past the opening stage of the game, which will likely be around Level 6.

From the Go-Live Patch Notes:

MARKSMAN
* Swift Shot: Damage reduced.
* Empowered Shot: Damage reduced.
* Deadeye Shot: Damage reduced.
* Strafe: Damage reduced.
* Hasted Shot: Damage reduced.

RANGER
* Dire Wolf, Blood Raptor: Damage reduced.
* Shadow Fire: Damage reduced.
* Splinter Shot: Damage reduced.


Ouch!

yes my Marksman/Ranger says OUCH indeed! I did think they were a bit overpowered in beta, seems like I never had to struggle too much to beat regular mobs.

Lag has been bad at times, non-existant a majority of the time-I got disconnected once from lag, but was able to get right back on thankfully.

they just shut down the servers for a bit-making people who had to wait two hours to get in not very happy. My guy is Level 8 and just made it out of the Arc quests.

Ah hell.. I'm going to have to get this.

Well I had hoped the rush would have subsided by now, but I guess there are a lot of people like me just getting off of work.

Briarcliff - position 2482
Keenblade - position 644

Looks like it'll be a bit before I get logged in. There are a couple of servers that are not full, Freeholme and Emberlord. They were not on the original list, I guess they are scrambling to get up more servers.

yeah they have added quite a few servers today to help with the crush of players.

Added a new one while I was playing.

It's fun. What server are we starting a FOFC group?

Still impossible to get on. I'm trying for keen blade since the pvp server has over 2400 in the queue. Even with 700 for keen blade no one is logging off so eta is still 3 hours. It only dropped by 20 in the past 15 minutes.

I've been in the Sunrest queue for a couple hours now. My position has dropped from 1000'ish to 522.

I played on an EU server today and the queues were just as bad - I got on about an hour from launch, but a lot of people had several hour queues - they have now taken all the EU servers down for performance upgrades.

Waited in Sunrest queue for around 3 hours until a BSOD (ATI driver related) put an end to that. I think I will try the other PVP-RP shard, Harrow.

Currently 41st in queue so that random BSOD may have actually saved me some time.

I down to 288 on Keenblade. Should be on within the hour.

Just was able to get back-all the servers but Ashblade (PvP) are full. Would have taken two hours on Keenblade, and 18, (18!) for Briarcliff, so I'm just gonna play on Ash for fun tonight.

I'm starting to think that for now, since it's chaos anyway, it might work out to just experiment with builds by making characters on whatever is the most accessible server at the time, before settling in to a permanent choice a bit later.

I'm starting to think that for now, since it's chaos anyway, it might work out to just experiment with builds by making characters on whatever is the most accessible server at the time, before settling in to a permanent choice a bit later.

yeah thats what I'm doing on Ash now with another rogues build, using classes I didn't try in the beta. I have to believe they will open more servers given how long some people have waited today to get in. I feel pretty fortunate to get in twice with no queue.

Apparently they have opened a lot of new servers already, I'm sure that will continue. The good thing is I didn't experience any technical problems at all, just the queue and the competition for resources.

This game is awesome. The mount helps a lot.

I got on this morning and only two servers were full. Not too bad. It's going down in 10 minutes but will be back up at 7:30 AM EST.

We might want to consider another PvP server as Briarcliff is the only one full this morning. I know it was picked because of Blackadar's guild there, but it kind of negates that benefit if we can't even get in to play there.

If it wasn't for DC Universe Online I would be all over this with you guys... I'll be lurking this thread daily so please post stories, impressions, ect ;)

We might want to consider another PvP server as Briarcliff is the only one full this morning. I know it was picked because of Blackadar's guild there, but it kind of negates that benefit if we can't even get in to play there.

I went ahead and applied to Blackadar's guild and found the reasoning for them picking Briarcliff. It seems that quite a bit of long standing guilds had focused in on Briarcliff before the headstart began. I'll copy a link that I saw posted over there.

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/5645/23feb4.png

There are two sides to that coin.

One is that you want to be on a high pop server once things settle down. That way there will always be people around to do rift/raids/warfronts etc. It puts the massive in MMO.

The other is that it will be very crowded at launch and there will be some very skilled players on a PVP server so expect to get your ass handed to you quite a bit. Some view that as a challenge.

I listened in on their Ventrilo server and they were saying there were people in the main city, Sanctum, auto running into a corner so that they wouldn't get disconnected while they slept. This is one reason the queues were not going down so fast. I logged in this morning and I was only 400ish in line. So I imagine once the mad rush is over it will not be so hard to get in.

I'll go either way. If we switch I suppose Ashblade would be good for the Guardian/PVP server since you already started there. I did get on Keenblade last night and got to lvl 8 with a Elementalist/Dominator/Pyromancer.

I could do without that challenge since my PvP skills are non-existant, lol. But whatever the group wants to do is fine with me. I'm gonna try to log in to play for a bit before lunch now, wish me luck! :)

Just checked the Briarcliff queue-about 650 in line, 3+ hours wait.

I've picked my crafting skills on my Keenblade character-Foraging, Mining, Weaponsmith. Let me know if you need anything from these crafts.

I picked up a nice shield for any warrior type-armor-324, Endurance +4, I think its tradeable. Off to lunch now, and probably running some errands after that-may there be no queues when I return!

Just checked the Briarcliff queue-about 650 in line, 3+ hours wait.
:crazy:

Well just getting ready to play again, All but two servers, including Keenblade are full. I checked Briarcliff and I would have been 1100+in the queue, and the estimated wait time was so long all it said was "calculating..." :) Ashstone, a PvP server is one of the two still open. That's where i started a character yesterday. I'm gonna start my guardian warrior there that I was going to start on Briarcliffe if anyone wants to join me. If Briarcliffe opens up at some point we can always make new characters there I guess.

Slate the Dwarven Warrior created.

They've added a website that shows current server status including the queue lengths: RIFT - Shard Status (http://www.riftgame.com/en/status/index.php).

heh they just added four more servers, two PvP, two PvE

I started a Druid on Ashstone, named Nielon. I'll be on for a few hours.

Glad I didn't pre-order, sounds chaos-riffic. I'll join a FOFC guild at somepoint

Glad I didn't pre-order, sounds chaos-riffic. I'll join a FOFC guild at somepoint

As long as you aren't dead set on one of the ultra-popular still 1000+ queues full servers its great :D There is a little competition for some quest areas whre the spawn rate needs to be a bit higher but no issues logging on. When they first posted that server status link less than half the servers had a queue on friday night in prime time.

They've added a website that shows current server status including the queue lengths: RIFT - Shard Status (http://www.riftgame.com/en/status/index.php).

As of 5:24am, which is about as non-peak as you can get, only one server has a queue. Anyone want to guess which one?

Yep, Briarcliff

I got on Briarcliff this morning about 5:30AM EST and there was no queue. Must've gotten lucky. I created a Paladin/Reaver/Warlord named Raider (original, huh?). He's level 9.

75 queue for Briarcliff right now, none for any of the others.

anybody currently playing? I'll jump in with you. currently 200 in the briarcliff queue-just tell me what side you are playing in case I need to create a character

down to 100 in the queue and my waiting time now-49 minutes, is longer than when I got in the queue. Lovely.

And I get on and am greeted with the message that 10 mins remain till server shutdown...sigh.

Servers are back up and apparantly there was something in it to help prevent people who try to avoid leaving the game when they go away from the computer so they dont end up back in the queue. Better try Briarcliff now :)

off to lunch, no queue on Briarcliff at the moment which is a good sign

I see it releases march 1st. Am I to late to get in the headstart since I did not pre-order.

You have to get the pre-order to get in to the head start I believe and you should still be able to get into the head start now. But don't quote me on that :)

and the queue is back up over 300 on Briarcliff

You have to get the pre-order to get in to the head start I believe and you should still be able to get into the head start now. But don't quote me on that :)
k, thx Thom. Going to give it a shot.

You have to get the pre-order to get in to the head start I believe and you should still be able to get into the head start now. But don't quote me on that :)

k, thx Thom. Going to give it a shot.

I just bought it yesterday and am playing, so you would still be good as long is it is before Tuesday.

Have a 11 Rogue and 10 Cleric on Keenblade, working out well, I put Assassin, NB and Marksman as my Rogue souls, the ranged benefits make soloing a lot easier. I am using the Rogue to gather and the Cleric to craft outfitting, weaponsmithing and apothocary.

I'm getting on Keenblade now, queue willing with my Rogue Severian if any wants to group. Post your character names so we can be on the lookout in-game.

I'm getting on Keenblade now, queue willing with my Rogue Severian if any wants to group. Post your character names so we can be on the lookout in-game.

Are you Defiant or Guardian?

Mine are both Guardian, but I can roll a Defiant if that's what most are doing.

Cleric is Malikye and Rogue is Walik

Won't be on the rest of today as we will be going out soon, but will be tomorrow,

Are you Defiant or Guardian?

Mine are both Guardian, but I can roll a Defiant if that's what most are doing.

Cleric is Malikye and Rogue is Walik

Won't be on the rest of today as we will be going out soon, but will be tomorrow,

I'm a Defiant there. The feeling was we'd go Guardian on a PvP server since they would be the underdogs there.

Downloading now, I'll have to figure out how to get steam to let me play (It'll be abit, because I picked up the latest DoWII addon.)

Downloading now, I'll have to figure out how to get steam to let me play (It'll be abit, because I picked up the latest DoWII addon.)

Let me know if you have problems, I got my copy through Steam

I'm getting on Keenblade now, queue willing with my Rogue Severian if any wants to group. Post your character names so we can be on the lookout in-game.

I'm Raider. I saw you were on, but no response. Servers are going down at 6PM EST and will be back up in 30 minutes.

Keenblade? Ok, that's the server I will join. Which side?

Defiants Fozzie. Sorry I missed you Raiders, so much spam from chat plus the rifts its easy to miss it if you sent a message. keenblade has a queue, but I'll be jumping back on there shortly.

I'm a Defiant on keenblade. 58 people in the queue.

I'm 4 in the queue now

#70 here

what level are you guys getting on now? My guy is like 12th I think. I can create a new guy to go with you if you are just starting out

Raiders and I are currently beating the snot out of undead and rift invaders, level 11 each

Good teaming with you Thomkal. I'll be on tomorrow morning and try to get a Guardian rolled on Briarcliffe.

Same here Raiders glad you finally figured out the raid loot button :)

yeah you guys who didn't get to play much in the beta, or not at all, feel free to ask questions here about the game.

Played a bit earlier with a Guardian, eh. I was going to roll up my defiant, but I'm getting a queue.. hope work stays quiet :)

Same here Raiders glad you finally figured out the raid loot button :)

LOL. Me too!

I created a Guardian on Briarcliffe this morning:

Tatum the Assassin/Bladedancer/Nightblade

Teamed with Thomkal this morning for a bit. It was fun. I got Tatum up to level 11 on Briarcliffe.

downloading... 8G will take about 90mins.

I'll probably be in the queue longer than that.

Hey Mustang,

There's no queue on Keenblade right now, and that's the PvE server we set up shot, so you can play there if you want since their is a queue at Briarcliff. We play Defiants there.

If you post here with your character name, I'll jump in and create a new character to help walk you through the beginning.

Hey guys how is the leveling? I hope it isn't like wow where there seems like no sense of accomplishment. It takes no time at all to level.

I guess what I'm saying is I enjoy leveling and I hope it takes time to get to 50. I'm only level 2 so it's hard to tell. :)

If you guys want to shoot me a PM with your characters names, servers and guardian/defiant or post them here I'll set up a master thread with them all in one post.

Hey guys how is the leveling? I hope it isn't like wow where there seems like no sense of accomplishment. It takes no time at all to level.

I guess what I'm saying is I enjoy leveling and I hope it takes time to get to 50. I'm only level 2 so it's hard to tell. :)

It goes quick early and is a bit linear, but once you get to 10 you have to travel further and it seems there is a better variety of types of quests, plus there are rift invasions of varying intensity that really boost the fun factor. There is definitely a sense of accomplishment after leveling near the end of 45-60 minute battle trying to close a rift.

I'd say the first 10 levels go by pretty quickly and then it begins to slow down/ But there were already reports of level 40 characters just 2 or 3 days in. Because this game is so story quest driven, it often gives you a sense of accomplishment-like level 6 or so when you get your third soul and move on to the new area.

posted that while you were BYU, glad we agree. :)

there's a queue to get into Keenblade right now, so anyone wanting to play should probably get in line now. 15 mins for me it says

Ahhh, good to hear! The only problem is I love LOTRO and I hate to bring myself away from it. :)

Just take the nearest Rift in LOTRO frnk55, I'm sure you'll be able to find one to take you back....

I have started a soon to be Shaman (Cleric) on Keenblade-Defiant named Kejaan. Just hanging out there for Mustang and anyone else who might be new and/or wants to start a new character there.

And it was just announced that someone has become the first player to make Level 50 on the shard. Um...congrats I guess?

That's the third server I've been on while someone dinged 50. I'm thinking that the quick trip to 50 is due to the rift/invasion mechanic providing hella experience while the huge number of players bunched up together means huge numbers of invasions with comparatively low risk to characters.

I agree Shkspr very easy to level via the rifts

sorry mustang gonna have to head out shortly, but likely will be on later.

Servers are really full. Played for a bit tonight after the Amazing Race.

That's the third server I've been on while someone dinged 50. I'm thinking that the quick trip to 50 is due to the rift/invasion mechanic providing hella experience while the huge number of players bunched up together means huge numbers of invasions with comparatively low risk to characters.

I have five guys at level 10. That's the same thing, right?

I have five guys at level 10. That's the same thing, right?

It's the only way I'll ever hit max level.

Noticed they've already released a hotfix patch that lowers XP for repeating a dungeon and fixes an exploit on exp gain when tackling mobs that con much higher than the player.

Keenblade was an hour wait after the patch, hope that eventually levels out.

My Char are now levels 11 (Rogue) 10 (Cleric) and 8 (Mage)

My Defiant Warrior is now Level 18. I've followed all of the Story-line quests, and find myself up at the "Far Mines"? Most of the quests and creatures are Level 19-21. I'm doing OK, but am over-matched with the Level 21's. I wonder why I'm a bit under-leveled there? I should probably go tackle Iron Tomb (haven't done that yet), and maybe I will chase Rifts around (kinda like those wacky Hurricane Chasers!). So far, I've had NO queue problems. But I expect it to be mayhem with the actual release tomorrow. I can't imagine how many more servers they will need to open up.

After playing Rift pretty well full-time for the last 3 days, my impressions can be summed up in one word. WOW! Rift is a blast. I hammered the game this weekend, flying through levels to get to 30. That’s actually a little higher than I intended as I just wanted to get ahead of the leveling curve (right now that’s around 16-22 or so), but I just kept wanting to play a little more.

I want to stay only cautiously optimistic when it comes to Rift – after all, I did get burned on Warhammer Online. But it’s hard not to do the fanboy gushing thing when a MMO absolutely hits one out of the park. So I thought I’d detail some highlights and lowlights from the opening weekend.

1. The soul system is everything I had hoped for and wanted in a MMO class structure. Well, I want one of two things. Either a fairly rigid system or one that offers lots of possibilities. Rift offers the latter. I leveled from 1-15 as a healing warden and then got tired of that, so I bought my second soul and created an inquisitor. It felt entirely like a different class and brought a new “wow” factor to the game. Now with my PvP soul waiting, I’m seriously considering buying my 3rd respec just for PvP.

2. The Rift system – or semi-dynamic world – is even better than I thought. There’s just something always to do. Just when I get tired of questing, a big invasion happens and I’m jumping from Rift to Rift. If I get tired of that, I can hop into PvP Warfronts and test my mettle there. Or I can take some quiet time to craft. Or run a PvE instance. I just haven’t gotten bored – there’s too much to do.

3. Beautiful world, great zones…and a challenge! I’m an explorer by nature and Rift has not disappointed. The zones are beautiful. Silverwood was great. Gloamwood was even better. Scarlet Gorge is pretty damn good. And things are challenging. Shadefallen Keep was really difficult and I suffered multiple deaths in there. It was great to have an area to keep me on my toes. Scarlet Gorge wasn’t easier and there are going to be a lot of mobs and a ton of agro waiting on people. I know it's not a return to the days of EQ, but the difficultly feels on par with EQ2 and it's certainly not the EZ mode that WoW has turned into.

4. Stability. While they’ve brought down the servers from time to time for patches, they’ve been remarkably stable and the game well polished. I’ve run into invisible mobs in one place, had the Fang never appear in Black Garden and seen a few other bugs, but the game just flat-out works.

Now there have been some downsides and some areas of concern for later.

1. The queues have been horrendous on many servers and I couldn’t even roll on my guild’s server (Briarcliff), finding an alternate server and guild over on Sunrest (and even there I’m battling 2 hour queues). I wonder if they clamped down on the servers hard while everyone is leveling in the newer areas and will gradually increase the population sizes as people get into different areas. I hope so.

2. If you don’t level with the pack, I’m concerned about the dynamic world. I out-leveled the pack and subsequently didn’t do any rifts in Scarlet Gorge because there was no one around to help. I’m also concerned about the leveling curve a bit.

3. I’ve hit a “dead zone” at 30 where I’m being forced to find alternate leveling techniques (PvP mainly) because there aren’t enough quests. While there are a few level 31-32 quests that I haven’t yet done, the mobs are 32 and they resist too many spells for me to really take them on at 29. So I leveled via PvP until 30. I suppose this is also due to me not having much of a chance to do any rifts in Scarlet Gorge either.

Anyway, more thoughts later, but this MMO is a blast.

If anyone needs any help, I'm a Guardian Cleric on Sunrest. Same name as my username here. If you're there, just ask for assistance!

This game is a lot of fun. I took off this afternoon to play. No queue on Briarcliff when I logged on about two hours ago. :)

Good writeup Blackadar. I have been thrilled with the game so far as well. I'm gonna get some more time in tonight - not sure how the shards will hold up tomorrow.

I've never really rolled a Warrior character in my previous MMO experience (mainly LOTRO, a little bit of WOW). My typical character is a Hunter/Ranger. And I did create a Guardian character that will follow that build, but I am enjoying my Warrior. He's a Champion-Reaver. And I'm now reading many of the Warrior builds, and very few of them include the Champion. It's a testament to the many types of combinations and play styles the game offers.

I'm of a mixed feeling about the Head Start. I said earlier I am Level 18, so I'm there with a large pack. We are typically fighting over some of the quest objectives. I am not interested in racing through the content. We'll see how it settles down after initial go-live, one month later (the "free month" with game purchase), and then 3-6 months when first time commitment ends. I'm hopeful it will be around for some time, and will certainly keep my Founders Pricing as long as game continues to grow. But market is definitely moving towards "free"-to-play. We'll see whether this one can buck the trend or not. More to come...

Curse you FOFC, you make me want to get this game so badly!

Hey wait a minute, we picked Briarcliff as our PvP server because of Blacky's ready made guild...and he's not even there? :)

I purposedly have held off from running my Shaman I mentioned earlier to help newbies to Rifts out when they first join, so if are you just starting the game, let me know if you want a teammate.

I finally get time to play today and less than five minutes later (because I didn't even get the message) the servers go down. Sigh.

That's kinda funny. Today Sunrest has a bigger queue than Briarcliff. I played Sunrest during the betas. However, I am sticking to Briarcliff and Keenblade now.

Sitting in Minneapolis airport on a seven hour layover and my Sprint 4G is as slow as a USR Sportster. Guess I won't get to play again until tomorrow night.

Bought the game and am getting constant crashes- error handler . Seems a lot of people are also getting this. Anybody know of any fixes?

Bought the game and am getting constant crashes- error handler . Seems a lot of people are also getting this. Anybody know of any fixes?

I got one similar to this. Login and instead of updating, select "Recover". That fixed it for me.

On a different note, I got to level 14 with Tatum on Briarcliff.

A post on the Rift forums mentions:

"Try hitting recover in the lower right corner. Corrupted files have been causing this for some people and that is a quick fix."

Other than that I don't think I'm much help. I have it on my PC with Windows 7 64 and my laptop with Vista 64 and haven't ran into this issue.

Worked ! Thanks Raiders Army and Lonnie.

Curse you FOFC, you make me want to get this game so badly!

Still time to get founders pricing :)

I echo lot of what Blackadder said, this game really has a lot to do and you can always keep it fresh. Crafting I use my Rogue as the gatherer and then ship the supplies to my Cleric and Mage so I can be totally self sufficient, which I like.

My only bitch/concern is the queue times right now, hoping that will ease up when those on the high pop queues advance and they let more people on. Also hoping on official release the new Queues attract most of the new players.

sorry mustang gonna have to head out shortly, but likely will be on later.

Sorry, just saw this. By the time everything was downloaded, patched and setup the keenblade queue was up to 90 minutes. I ended up watching a movie with my daughter and playing late in the afternoon.

Ok.. I'm too stupid to figure this out.

I assume there is an auto-target feature? (or click to next target?)

Ok.. I'm too stupid to figure this out.

I assume there is an auto-target feature? (or click to next target?)

You can set up hot keys in the settings under main menu. :)

make sure you set the autoloot in the Misc. category

So I broke down and bought the game last night. I enjoyed what little of the intro I played before going to bed, but haven't been able to dive too far into it just yet.

What server are FOFCers primarily playing on? I started a Guardian warrior on Briarcliffe, but I'm planning on re-rolling wherever you guys are.

check the other thread Target for the names and where we are playing-its briarcliff and keenblade for the most part right now.

And welcome! I'm not likely to be around for too long later tonight, but if I'm on, I'll be glad to show you around, help you out.

make sure you set the autoloot in the Misc. category

No kidding. I just saw this feature.

This thread is great: Rift Community Guide Compendium (http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?72051-Rift-Community-Guide-Compendium)

And this thread is essential: The "Things I wish I had known sooner" thread... (http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?97217-The-quot-Things-I-wish-I-had-known-sooner-quot-thread)...

I am loving the game so far. I chose to play on an EU server because I work at night, and as I hoped, it has matched my playtime perfectly - I'm in a large Brit guild and it has been a lot of fun to get it started, establish guild crafters, add new players to the guild and so forth. I love the class system, and the roles - talk about ultimate flexibility. I started out going all bard, doing a lot of healing and buffing, and that has been fun, and now I have a second role, good for PVP and also for PVE, as a Saboteur/Ranger - let me tell you the Sab kicks out some crazy damage. Made level 29 yesterday after a couple of runs in Foul Cascade.

Fun so far - but I wonder what will happen at the endgame - not sure it is in place, or how fun rifts will continue to be if that all that is left to do. We'll see.

dola - also, in terms of additional options, you may want to consider if you're not enabling the ability queue - I got used to it in EQ2 and I love it - it lets you queue up one ability while you're casting the next. Also, the option to target through your target and to show your target's target are key for grouping.

I'm tending to like my Warrior (Tank) a little more than my Rogue (Assassin). I'm somewhat of a part time player and got Raider up to level 12 on Briarcliff today.

I got my Rogue Marksman to level 14 on Keenblade today. Beginning to see some parts of Freemarch I didn't get to in Beta-like Scarred Mire. And does anybody know how you are supposed to beat that stupid kid in the footrace?

Made level 31 on my Saboteur today - finally getting the top ability on the top part of my soul tree. Also had a good conversation with some Defiant near Kain's Command. Pretty cool that you can talk with the enemy.

I'm enjoying the game more in the 30s than I did in the teens back in beta.

For example, last night I started off questing and did great with my new spec. I also helped out in a couple of rifts and an invasion. Then I joined a group for the level 30 instance (can't remember it, but it's in Scarlet Gorge), switched specs to my healing spec and we cleared that. It was tough and I needed an off-healer, but after a rough start we did great. Then we formed a PvP group and got facerolled in BG (5 man premade vs. 10 man premade = loss), jumped into Codex and won a couple of matches there (one by only 10 points). Then I went to bed. It was an awesome night of RIFTing.

The soul system just absolutely makes this game. I went from a purely ranged Inquisitor spec to an Inq/Justicar spec like this: Soul Tree Calculator: Inquisitor (25) / Justicar (12) / Purifier (0) :: Rift: Planes of Telara :: ZAM (http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=10rdG.VuMo.ViobGx) Needless to say, I can wreck 3-4 mobs at once - though it takes me the same amount of time to kill just 1. smile It sucks in PvP - I'm dead one on one - but I can quest very effectively. Then I have a healer spec that's heavy Purifier. And I'm soon going to get my 3rd spec so I can have a PvP healer - more of a Sentinel/Warden/Templar spec. And there are so many other possibilities I'd like to try, never mind 3 other classes! Lovin' it!

anyone playing?

I would have been but there is a two hour queue on Briarcliff. I think I might need to just roll on a different server, but I was just starting to like this character.

I would have been but there is a two hour queue on Briarcliff. I think I might need to just roll on a different server, but I was just starting to like this character.
That's what I've ended up doing. I know/hope it will level out after a month. And then I'll roll some alts on these servers. But in the meantime, I'll keep plugging along on a couple other shards.

There hasn't been a queue on Briarcliff all day today. I got my mage up to 21.

So here's another very cool thing that happened to me yesterday that increased my satisfaction in the game. I was playing a Guardian Cleric working on some quests. I was sent to kill 8 Aelfwar Scouts & some Treants. Suddenly a rift opened up in my area. As it turns out, no one likes the invading creatures from other planes. As I focused my attention towards battling the rift creatures, a Treant charged in and started attacking. And then two Aelfwar Scouts joined in and attacked. So there I was fighting alongside my "enemies" against a larger threat. Maybe that happens in other games, but I found that fascinating.

Queues seem to have settled down nicely, got some good time in today and actually stumbled on a minor Rift in the middle of nowhere that I was able to close be myself at level 15 before it got nasty.

Also just added 2nd role to my Cleric and Rogue for raids/grouping. I have heard others say it makes it become a whole new game, but that might be an understatement. I had to completely change the way I approached things going from a Shaman/Purifier/Warden to a Sentinel/Purifier/Warden as without the Shaman soul I now have no business anywhere near combat. Really love how swapping one soul changes the game so much.

This game is freaking awesome. I'm glad I got in on the 6 month pricing.

My "main" is a sab/mm/ranger and is level 19 on Freeholme. It's a lot of fun. There are so many possibilities with your trees and roots. What's great is that there is no formulated character (although the sab is OP for a lot of people).

This game is freaking awesome. I'm glad I got in on the 6 month pricing.

My "main" is a sab/mm/ranger and is level 19 on Freeholme. It's a lot of fun. There are so many possibilities with your trees and roots. What's great is that there is no formulated character (although the sab is OP for a lot of people).

I did the same, got my Assassin/Rift Stalker/Marksman to lvl 20 today. I am pretty deadly in any 1 on 1 situation.

Main alt is level 16 Shaman/Purifier/Warden, with a secondary role of Sentinal/Purifier/Warden for party's and raids as a pure healer.

Have to say I enjoy the Shaman role more though as I can solo easily with the offense of the Shaman, HOT's of the Warden and the Shields of the Purifier. Have defeated as many as 3 enemies at once with this build, though getting too cocky has also gotten me killed a couple of times.

For those that have come over from WOW, is it better? Or just different? I have played WOW on and off since launch, but after hitting 85 in the last expansion I just didn't seem to have much desire to do the heroics and raiding again.

I don't know what a MMO would need to hold my attention right now, but whatever it is, WOW isn't doing it.

For those that have come over from WOW, is it better? Or just different? I have played WOW on and off since launch, but after hitting 85 in the last expansion I just didn't seem to have much desire to do the heroics and raiding again.

I don't know what a MMO would need to hold my attention right now, but whatever it is, WOW isn't doing it.

IMO, similar but better in many ways. Worse in others. FYI, the first 10 levels aren't all that great. The game really shines later on.

The soul system, the graphics, the PvP options, the Rifts, the lack of the awful cross-server LFG tool (and the asshattery it spawns) and the increased difficulty all make Rift a far more fun game than WoW.

I just find WoW too simple, too easy and with too many crutches that encourage the player base to act like complete and utter jackasses. WoW has better questing, probably better balance (it should, it's been out for much longer) and better lore. But I walked away from WoW some time ago and haven't wanted to come back.

To me, Rift takes much of the best of WoW, EQ2 and WAR and puts them in the same game with dynamic Rift content. Helluva combo. Whether or not I'm singing the same tune 3 months from now remains to be seen, but I'm level 40 and still having a blast.

There was a large update today:

What a Launch it's Been! (Rift 1.01 update) (http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?116378-What-a-Launch-it-s-Been!-(Rift-1.01-update))

IMO, similar but better in many ways. Worse in others. FYI, the first 10 levels aren't all that great. The game really shines later on.

The soul system, the graphics, the PvP options, the Rifts, the lack of the awful cross-server LFG tool (and the asshattery it spawns) and the increased difficulty all make Rift a far more fun game than WoW.

I just find WoW too simple, too easy and with too many crutches that encourage the player base to act like complete and utter jackasses. WoW has better questing, probably better balance (it should, it's been out for much longer) and better lore. But I walked away from WoW some time ago and haven't wanted to come back.

To me, Rift takes much of the best of WoW, EQ2 and WAR and puts them in the same game with dynamic Rift content. Helluva combo. Whether or not I'm singing the same tune 3 months from now remains to be seen, but I'm level 40 and still having a blast.

Man, but this is a complicated game though. :)

Well if the community in WoW was a problem for you, you may indeed be singing a diffferent tune quite soon, as about 90% of Rift's player base is from WoW.

Graphics are better, newer engine. Soul trees are nice, problem I see is that at top level you are going to have 3 abilities that do the exact same thing, but this can't be avoided right now.

Warfronts are exciting but it's still the same PvP with tremendous balance issues, but its the first couple weeks since launch, it'll be smoothed out.

Basically if you wanted a change of pace from WoW, the game will be interesting i'm sure for a bit.

You guys still playing/enjoying this??

I'm still enjoying it. I am at level 38 on my Warlock/Necro/Dominator on Briarcliff. The queues have died down quite a bit. Will have a better opinion after I hit 50 and see how things are in the endgame which I'm sure will be an ongoing development.

It's pretty wild when you have a large invasion in a contested zone and the two sides are basically playing tug of war while trying to kill the big boss as well as each other.

still playing wondering where my FOFC buddies are.

Haven't had as much time this week, but still enjoying the game, I really like the pace of it and leveling is not a grind, but not overly easy as you get higher either.

I'm loving it, have a level 26 Cleric (Justicar / Shaman) on Wolfsbane.

I love this game. I don't have anyone higher than level 22, but I have a bunch between levels 10-22.

still playing wondering where my FOFC buddies are.

Have we decided on an "official" server?

Have we decided on an "official" server?

No we have not officially. Keenblade seemed to be what decided for a PvE server back when the game started, and Briarcliff for a PvP server due to Blackadar's guild (which he ended up not joining). The queue issues seem to be getting better, so we could go anywhere I guess.

I think the highest level guy I have is 19 right now. Alt-itis again has struck, so I have a few characters over a few servers. I still have my Level 1 or 2 Shaman hanging out on Keenblade (I think). I think it'd be fun to all just start a character there and run around as a group.

I still have my Level 1 or 2 Shaman hanging out on Keenblade (I think). I think it'd be fun to all just start a character there and run around as a group.

I would be down with this, I have 3 char on Keenblade (though 2 are guardian) and I know we talked about being Defiant. I will roll up a fresh Defiant on Keenblade if this is what we want to do.....I would like to try a tank as I have a Cleric, Rogue and Mage currently.

I love this game. I don't have anyone higher than level 22, but I have a bunch between levels 10-22.

I am the same, but I have a Rogue/Cleric combo (21 and 18) I go back and forth with a lot. I will gather with the Rogue as I quest and then mail the ingrediants to the Cleric who does Alchemy, Weaponsmithing and Clothier.

I would be down with this, I have 3 char on Keenblade (though 2 are guardian) and I know we talked about being Defiant. I will roll up a fresh Defiant on Keenblade if this is what we want to do.....I would like to try a tank as I have a Cleric, Rogue and Mage currently.

Kejaan is my shaman's name of Keenblade-Defiant. would like to organize a general time frame people will be on so as to get as many of us possible together at one time.

Kejaan is my shaman's name of Keenblade-Defiant. would like to organize a general time frame people will be on so as to get as many of us possible together at one time.

I rolled a Defiant Warrior Hawkeslayer, going out tonight, but I will be on in the AM, I will look for you.

As far as regular days, Sunday is pretty much my do nothing day, I could get on anytime then, sometimes on Saturdays.

During the week is pretty limited for me due to Softball and Jiu Jitsu taking up 3-4 nights and Friday usually date night with the Mrs.

I will be jumping on as Severian on Keenblade till about Noon EST if anyone wants to join me. Message me there and I will switch over to Kejaan for some quality lowbie play. ;)

I'll be on tomorrow (Sunday) intermittently in the morning and afternoon. Probably tonight sometime too. :)

Just bought RIFT on steam and it's nearly 85% d/l.

I will be on tonight after 7:00 EST. Looking forward to jumping on with you guys. What lvl should I get to until I pst you in game to group up?

Is Keenblade the server to start with?

CleBrownsFan,

Yeah Keenblade looks to be the place to go. You can send any of us playing there a tell anytime, so don't worry about levelling first. My Cleric there Kejaan-is still level 1 (thought I got him to Level 2 but not yet), and others are creating new characters for this, so I and anyone else around who's been creating new characters can group with you right from the start. Post your character's name here. Your character should be a Defiant.

I should also tell you that ever since Update 1.01 a couple weeks ago I have been experiencing sporadic lag/total character freeze-up and from the message boards I'm not alone here, so if I freeze up while grouping tonight just go on without me till I unfreeze.

Hawkeslayer is level 6 ATM, so I will hang out and wait for you guys to get out of the starting zone if we are on at the same time later.

going on now as Severian. Send me a tell and I'll move over to Kejaan

Hopping on momentarily.

whoever Arkanos is I saw your tell, said you weren't on when I replied

Name is Helter - got to lvl 6 but logging off soon 'cause I have a pounding head-ech.

Liking it so far.. this will suck some time away - that's for sure.

I created a Cleric (Warden, Sentinel, Purifier)

I'll group up with u guys tomorrow if your on

Feel better CleBrownsFan

Raiders and I are about to get on our level 1 characters to get to Level 6. The idea here is to group and play together with these characters so we stay near the same level for as long as possible.

Played with Thomkal and BYU. A lot of fun! Anyhow, I think we're all about 6-7 now with other alts on Keenblade. My new one is Ballistic, Marksman/Assassin/Something (can't remember).

okay Raiders, BYU, and I got up to Level 6 and out of the opening zone so should be good to go there. I am a non-healing cleric (Shaman, Druid, Justicar), Raiders is a Rogue, BYU is a Warrior. I have a shield waiting in my mail from my alt for a warrior, but I guess as a Champion you wont need that hmmm?

I may not be around much tomorrow-may or may not have company coming, so try not to be 10 levels higher than me when I get on again lol. Others who have the game and want to start a new guy, or have someone close to level 6, just contact one of us in game or here.

Psst Raiders, its Riftblade. ;)

I have a 7 mage (warlock,necro) on Keenblade named Naza. Please add.

I have a 7 mage (warlock,necro) on Keenblade named Naza. Please add.

I added Naza this morning, so I'll be on the lookout for you when I'm on again.

I was looking at the three soul classes I selected. Two of the classes were pretty identical.

What do you feel the best combo for a healer is?

I was looking at the three soul classes I selected. Two of the classes were pretty identical.

What do you feel the best combo for a healer is?

If you are playing a pure healer that is a good set as you have instants for emergencies, HOT's for sustained combat and AOE heals for groups/raids.

My Cleric's 2nd role is the same combination, which I use for groups.

If you want to add some offense for solo play get a Shaman soul and pair that with Warden and Purifier.

Hopping on in a bit. I'd suggest that maybe Friday night/Saturday night would be a good time for our FOFC group?

Hopping on in a bit. I'd suggest that maybe Friday night/Saturday night would be a good time for our FOFC group?

Did you get the Bow I sent you?

So I am up to lvl 12 and really looking forward to grouping with you guys 'cause I'm sort of lost when a Rift opens up. Both of my kids have pink eye (last two nights I've hardly any sleep) so not sure how much playing time I'll have the next coupe days. Most nights I can be on after 7:00 EST and weekend nights I'm usually open to play as well.

Kejaan your friendly cleric/artificer is up to Level 10. If any cleric/mage needs a yew wand (and you probably don't), let me know so I can get my crafting skill up. :) I also have herbs from foraging that I won't need if any potion maker needs them let me know. If anybody wants burlap cloth, let me know too or I'm selling it. You can message me in game with trade requests if you want.

I'll take the Burlap Thom, you can mail it to Hawkeslayer as I am runecrafting with him. Warrior up to 12, Mage at 10 now.

Did you get the Bow I sent you?

I haven't logged on with Ballistic since we played the other night.

I re-created Raider (tank) and am level 8. Do we need a tank or a long-range guy for our group?

Also, is everyone good with playing this weekend? I'm good later Friday night and anytime on Saturday.

I'm good either night... having two kids will do that to you ;)

I'll most likely play a few more nights before then - what lvl is going to be "to high" to group up with you guys?

I believe both Thomkal and I have alts in the high teens to twenties on Keenblade.

I'll take the Burlap Thom, you can mail it to Hawkeslayer as I am runecrafting with him. Warrior up to 12, Mage at 10 now.

Oh meant to tell you I got the runes from you, thanks

I believe both Thomkal and I have alts in the high teens to twenties on Keenblade.

And we won't talk about how many times we died doing that Anchor quest. ;)

I haven't logged on with Ballistic since we played the other night.

I re-created Raider (tank) and am level 8. Do we need a tank or a long-range guy for our group?

Also, is everyone good with playing this weekend? I'm good later Friday night and anytime on Saturday.

I should be Friday, Saturday probably too-company that didn't come this past weekend may come this weekend. :confused: I think we now have every calling but rogue? But hey play what you want.

I'll take the Burlap Thom, you can mail it to Hawkeslayer as I am runecrafting with him. Warrior up to 12, Mage at 10 now.

I sent you some burlap BYU. I also need Gems (moonstone, sunstone, opals) if any of you miners want to part with them.

I sent you some burlap BYU. I also need Gems (moonstone, sunstone, opals) if any of you miners want to part with them.

I'll hook you up

Thomkal - sorry I didn't jump back on. It was another long night with my little one. On top of his pink eye - his top two teeth are coming in - poor chap :(

Thanks for answering my questions... I'm starting to understand "my place" in Rift now - looks like it's going to be a fun ride.

Any websites you guys suggest for some reading/forums on Rift topics?

Any thoughts on using some sort of voice chat while we're all on?

We just wrapped up hosting a street hockey tournament my younger son was playing in, so my time was limited last week. I'd love to jump in and play with you guys. I'll start checking this thread a little more often.

Thomkal - sorry I didn't jump back on. It was another long night with my little one. On top of his pink eye - his top two teeth are coming in - poor chap :(

Thanks for answering my questions... I'm starting to understand "my place" in Rift now - looks like it's going to be a fun ride.

Any websites you guys suggest for some reading/forums on Rift topics?

Any thoughts on using some sort of voice chat while we're all on?

I completely understand ClebrownsFan so dont worry about it-anyway Raiders was on shortly after you left-though he ditched me shortly after too. :D

I suggest reading the various forums at the Rifts site-they have separate forums for the various classes, crafting etc-those posts will have references to Rift websites that may be good too but I haven't looked too closely at them yet.

I don't have voice chat capability.

Oh and Clebrowns, I can give you a tour of Meridian if you like-there's a couple important places to visit there-the portal keeper, bank, etc, as well as a couple quests. There's also the soul quests there when you get a level or two higher-these allow you to gain access to all the souls in your calling so you can then switch them around to better fit what your looking to do at certain times.

And as I told Clebrowns last night, new players should really read everything a quest giver says (some offer more story information if you are interested) because it really helps get you into the game more.

I ran around Meridian for a while. Found most places that seemed important. Didn't know about the soul quest and the flexibility to switch them around. That seems very handy as I am not really sure where to put points into yet.

I ran around Meridian for a while. Found most places that seemed important. Didn't know about the soul quest and the flexibility to switch them around. That seems very handy as I am not really sure where to put points into yet.


I wouldn't really worry too much about where to put your points because its easy to "reroll" then at your class trainer. I'm guessing you picked one soul over the other to start with because it interested you the most? If so, I would suggest putting most of your points there. You can't put more points than your level into a soul, so then there will be the opportunity to put points in the other souls. Once you get more familiar with the game, then you might want to change things around a bit to get the maximum benefit from your souls.

I ran around Meridian for a while. Found most places that seemed important. Didn't know about the soul quest and the flexibility to switch them around. That seems very handy as I am not really sure where to put points into yet.

I recommend just making sure you have one of the new soul quests on you every time you go back to Meridian. Unless you really want them all right away there's on rush but you will complete one almost every time you participate in a rift in any way. They've made it very easy to acquire all 8 pve souls.

I just found 6 artifacts in the Rill Pond-that has to be a record. ;)

Very intriguing post in the forums about an event taking place tonight:

Sneak Peek - River of Souls World Event Testing! (http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?136398-Sneak-Peek-River-of-Souls-World-Event-Testing)!

The bad news-You need the alpha client to see this-which many of us have deleted because they told us to-its been available for download since the beginning of the month as a test server, but its likely going to take forever to download it so I'll skip it.

Man something big happened in the forums. They apparantly had some things in the patch notes that were not actually in the patch, but a sign of things to come. They've now edited the patch notes so we can't see what the changes were, but it looks like it involved a big healing "nerf" (man I hate that word) that had people in an absolute tizzy to put it iightly-with people threatening to cancel or actually cancelling their subscription over it.

I hate this thread.

I haven't played an online RPG for almost a decade now. I don't want to and that's what I keep telling myself. But this thread's presence has Rift beckoning me. But no! Damn it I don't want to play...right?

Come Jeff, join us....join us Jeff....

I hate you.

Is there any other legit games on the horizon or is it worth taking the plunge on this one. I'm really holding out for a SciFi game, but it seems AO is the closest we're going to get to that.

I hate you.

Is there any other legit games on the horizon or is it worth taking the plunge on this one. I'm really holding out for a SciFi game, but it seems AO is the closest we're going to get to that.

I think the new Star Wars game is supposed to be good. :)

Anyhow, what level are we playing this weekend? I popped Ballistic to level 15, but I'll hold off. Raider is level 10 (I think).

I hate you.

Is there any other legit games on the horizon or is it worth taking the plunge on this one. I'm really holding out for a SciFi game, but it seems AO is the closest we're going to get to that.

There are always legit games on the horizon-there's a ton of them being released/made right now due to WoW and also due to the success of the free to play business model.

Black Prophecy is in beta now and has generated some buzz.

Black Prophecy: Home (http://blackprophecy.com/) The Star Wars game mentioned before also of course. A couple good sites for mmorpg news and reviews are:

MMORPG.com - Your Headquarters for Online Multiplayer Games, RPG Online Games, Online Role Playing Free Games! (http://www.mmorpg.com/)

http://www.mmorpgate.com/ (http://www.mmorpgate.com/)
and the freemmorpg sister site (link banner at bottom of the home page.)

Coming on the heels of the river of worlds test event comes the 30 day since launch world event and other stuff on March 30:


Press Release - RIFT™ ERUPTS IN WORLDWIDE DYNAMIC CONFLICT MARCH 30TH (http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?137111-Press-Release-RIFT™-ERUPTS-IN-WORLDWIDE-DYNAMIC-CONFLICT-MARCH-30TH)

I think the new Star Wars game is supposed to be good. :)

Anyhow, what level are we playing this weekend? I popped Ballistic to level 15, but I'll hold off. Raider is level 10 (I think).

I took last night off (1st night not playing since I bought RIFT ;) ) to watch some b-ball. I'm good for some weekend sessions - anytime after 7:00-7:15 EST. I'm lvl 14 at the moment - so that 14/15 range should be good for me.

Are there any missions/instances we can all do together? If missions - which ones should I not complete so we can work them together?

Iron Tomb is the first dungeon instance available for Defiants-which are level 18+ missions. There's a couple quests on the outside that you can do, but likely (I say likely as I have not been inside yet myself), you will need a group to do the missions inside. There are also Iron Fortress quests at around/just before that level that might be better to do as a group as there are a lot of patrolling mobs (and quick respawns), so its hard not to pull additional mobs there. And that's just outside the fortress itself. Tougher stuff "inside"

I see I have some catching up to do-I think Kejaan is like level 12 or 10 even.

So worth the purchase or not?

I will only be able to play in my off weeks or if I get into a hotel with a great connection.

I think it is, they finally found the bugs that were causing slow downloads and players being hacked and having all their money and items stolen, so now is a better time to get started then when it launched. They are good about providing smaller updates on a regular basis to fix bugs/balance classes and skills, etc, and I posted above the first major update coming a month after release with a new world event, so they are committed to improving the game both from a technical and a playing experience standpoint.

Plus with the large number of choices in classes (souls), you can play very different games. Yesterday I was playing a stealthy assassin who snuck up on foes and backstabbed them for mega damage-to today to a cleric who has no healing powers, so is a basically a crusading hand to hand tank, to my main character a shoot from the distance while my pet keeps them at a distance so I don't have to get into hand to hand combat, etc.

The graphics are better than average for the most part, and then you have the uniqueness of the rift system and I certainly think its worth a try for people who like the MMO genre or want to give it a try.

I echo what Thomkal says Dennis, I am enjoying a lot more than I ever enjoyed WOW.

It sounds like they have good things in store in terms of expansion as well, I would definitely recommend it.

I have another job opportunity in the immediate future. If that falls through I may pick this up.

Alright. I'm in full time. Pick me a server and a side, and I'll join in :)

Alright. I'm in full time. Pick me a server and a side, and I'll join in :)

Keenblade - Defiant

What is your character going to be named?

Iron Tomb is the first dungeon instance available for Defiants-which are level 18+ missions. There's a couple quests on the outside that you can do, but likely (I say likely as I have not been inside yet myself), you will need a group to do the missions inside.


You definitely need a group. I ran it at 18 but we had a level 25 tank in the group so it was hard to gauge the true difficulty if it was level appropriate for everyone. I enjoyed it, the bosses are not all tank and spank, there are a couple mechanics to some of them that in other games you don't see until max level dungeons.

There are also a group of quests that will show up under Meridian in the quest log at level 20 as epic quests/story quests. Some of them are simple, go close 8 death rifts, etc. A couple of them are quite challenging with an elite level 20 mob or waves of stuff that you ahve to kill that would heavily recommend a group.

Everything else I remember up to 20 is easy to solo but its always faster/more fun to quest together on normal stuff too of course :D

Ok...bought, downloading right now...

Once it's final I will post my info..


edit: HAHAHA 8 GBs of data...it will be a bit.

Keenblade - Defiant

What is your character going to be named?

Taliana

I have found the lovely Taliana. :) She's currently 6th level warrior just finished the intro.

Okay, I'm up for tomorrow. Thomkal said he's good anytime after 2 PM tomorrow. I think Clebrowns suggested anytime after 7-7:15 EST (PM I'd think).

Can we set a time tomorrow for maybe 7:30 PM EST? Level 15ish? We can complete some missions and roll up to level 18 next week for IT.

Okay, I'm up for tomorrow. Thomkal said he's good anytime after 2 PM tomorrow. I think Clebrowns suggested anytime after 7-7:15 EST (PM I'd think).

Can we set a time tomorrow for maybe 7:30 PM EST? Level 15ish? We can complete some missions and roll up to level 18 next week for IT.

Sounds good to me - 7:30 PM EST is good for me. I logged off tonight 'cause I was getting close to dinging 16. Plus these second games are pretty damn good (of course Go Bucks!).

I may start an Alt so I can stay around the same lvls as the FOFC crew with Helter...

I should be good for that time, which is 4:30 here, it will give me a chance to get close to 15

FINE! The constant bumping of this thread has made me read up on the game and now I'm interested. Happy!?

*grumbles about how FOFC has cost him a lot of money over the years*

FINE! The constant bumping of this thread has made me read up on the game and now I'm interested. Happy!?

*grumbles about how FOFC has cost him a lot of money over the years*

Que mad scientist laugh........See you at 7:30 eastern tomorrow :devil:

FINE! The constant bumping of this thread has made me read up on the game and now I'm interested. Happy!?

*grumbles about how FOFC has cost him a lot of money over the years*

Extremely happy-the cult has another member. Welcome brother! :devil:

FINE! The constant bumping of this thread has made me read up on the game and now I'm interested. Happy!?

*grumbles about how FOFC has cost him a lot of money over the years*

I feel your pain sabotai - they sucked me in last week :p

Myrrdore...lvl 7 now...took most of the night to download the game.

Justicar / Druid / Shaman

I feel your pain sabotai - they sucked me in last week :p

I keep stepping to the edge of the cliff and proceed to back off slowly. If they ran a sale I'd be done for.

I keep stepping to the edge of the cliff and proceed to back off slowly. If they ran a sale I'd be done for.

I love the concept of the game, the character creation and the class based system they have...

I am hooked.