I was invited to the Rift Beta 4 event this past weekend and as a result I have pre-ordered.
If you play WoW, you will feel very comfortable playing Rift. Things are basically where you are use to finding them. Settings are similar, color of weapon grades, hotbar, and talent trees. If you could change something in WoW, you can do it in Rift. But then it goes another step beyond. All those addons you dowload to make things work better and let you customize your ui…they are already in the game. Brand new UIs that you need to get use to are one thing that make it hard for people to switch games. Coming from WoW, I feel right at home.
You liked Dual Specs? How about QUAD specs! Three talent trees not enough… How about if we let you have EIGHT! But only three at a time. Don’t like the cookie cutter way you have to play….Now you can be truly original. The abilities you receive to put on your hotbar depend on how far you go into a tree, not what the NPCs Trainers have to sell you. Add 4 points to a tree, get a new ability, add 2 more, get a new spell….4 more…here is another. Talent choices can also give you abilities. I am going to have trouble not rolling alts in Rift. But being able to have 4 Specs (called roles) will cut down on the need to level so many alts.
Quests are your normal type. I didn’t get any that I can call FUN though. But I haven’t gotten above level 16 and have only quested in 75% of the first zone. Im hoping they add some unique quests. But there are the dynamic Rifts to keep you busy and help you level.
Rift is named after the fact that elemental rifts randomly open all over the zone. They are very epic in feel. If you ever played Warhammer, they are similar to the public quests but you don’t get loot based on if you were 1st 2nd and 3rd… It drops from the sky when the rift closes as balls of light and you click a bag icon on your UI to get your prizes. It is usually some form of Sourcestone. This can be used as currency to get weapons and armor. The more rifts you participate in, the more stuff you get. Other items drop too that can contain crafting mats, armor and weapons, and temporary buffs.
Rifts are not very easy to do alone…and the elite mobs are extremely difficult. If no one closes an open rift, it will start to send out waves of mobs that take off across the fields and down the roads towards towns…and proceed to beat the crap out of players and quest givers alike taking over towns and just hanging out so it is up to the players to beat them back and close the rift before things get out of hand. There are also full scale invasions which you receive a quest if you are in the area, and multiple rifts open and everyone is given a few goals to hold them off. This is where you get the purple drop currency for the extra good items.
The rifts contain several waves of mobs…sometimes 10 at once, sometimes 1. You can gain XP even if you dont hurt anything and just heal and keep people alive and you dont need to be there for the entire event. If you show up for the 5th wave and you kill something, you still get a tiny bit of reward for your efforts.
I didnt get to do any instances, but the people in the temp guild I was in seemed to have fun. I did pop into a few PvP rounds which weren’t bad. The lowest level one had an object in the middle…two teams raced to grab it. You got points for holding onto it and some for killing players…but more points from holding it. BUT, the item does increasing damage to you until you are dead, so you need to hand it off. It is easy to see who has it. I kinda liked it as it wasn’t a battle ground that you can turtle. And if you just go in and kill random players and not concentrate on the person holding the item….your side will lose.
I really think this game will grab quite a few players. If you happen to pre-order – Id go with the collectors edition – $10 more, you get a nice size starter bag (needed) and a mount when you hit 20 saving you all the gold and plat you gained during your leveling – At 16 I think I had 2 or 3 plat – and mounts were over 2 plat. It also lets you get into the last few weeks of beta and a week head start.
I didn’t get into crafting or gathering too much…and I only was in the one zone so still lots I have not seen. I might just be a healer this time around!
geez, i have never played WoW and a new one called Rift? sheesh, i am in such a tiny cave of a world!
i do love the graphics, they are Frank Frazetta-like to me – very cool and it looks fun =)