I’ve been playing Rift on three different servers, getting a different experience for the most part on each. Two are defiant, so there are a few similarities, but the guilds I’m in are wildly different. The guardian side of things has it’s own challenges to deal with and yet somehow on all three characters I’ve made it to about level 20.
Shatterbone, Guardian side. Sanctum in the background.
On my guardian character I’ve joined up to a guild of Guild Wars players. Unfortunately for me they seem to be pretty casual. Or worse, they’ve already lost interest in the game. I’ve only ever logged in while 2 or 3 other people were online, and 2/3rds of the guild haven’t logged in for a while.
That’s a damn shame because my guardian ranger is my favourite character. I like his DPS, his pet, his abilities. Cringer has always been the pet name of choice for me, it’s like the best pet name ever. Google it. I’ve done more rifts on this character than on any other. Truly ranged dps has an advantage over other classes in rifts because I can change targets quickly to ensure I get as much credit as possible for a rift.
I also lucked out by choosing ranger and marksman as my first two souls, even though I had no idea what I was doing. They seem to work really well together at this stage. Tigerfeet was saying she likes her Saboteur because she could kill stuff quickly. I found as my third soul it just got left out of the soul point party.
The other draw back for my Ranger/Marksman so far is that I don’t seem to have any long term buffs at all to speak of.
I think the rifts may be more fun on the guardian side, at least in the early zone anyway. There are massive tree vindicators as tall as skyscrapers, and the first major town, Argent Glade, feels like it actually needs to be protected. It’s the site of a college and a porticullum. There are tons of NPCs and it feels like a town. There are rifts constantly sending invasion forces there. Countless battles are waged just outside the walls, or often, inside.
Byriel, Defiant side. Two water rifts form over the plains
My rogue bladedancer / assassin / riftstalker is a fair diversion from my ranger. It’s got the long term buffs I want, and the DPS. There are some nifty things for letting me complete some of the more mundane quests or achievements like stealth, or my stealth fox. I can escape things easily with my Shadow Shift that moves me forward 15 meters, and if that doesn’t work I have sidesteps, to dodge attacks.
I still feel like I haven’t figured out the optimum soul point build for my bladedancer, but then, I feel the same way about all my characters. I’ve just been feeling things out as I go, so I’m sure I’ll have to redistribute everything at some point.
Freemarch is a plain, and while I find a great deal of the plains to be pretty boring that doesn’t mean it’s all so. There is much more to the coastal areas here, than in Silverwood, and the rocky cliffs or the central mountain area both provide some relief from flatness. And hey, how many games have a generally flat open plain motif?
I’ve never been particularly impressed by the rifts in Freemarch. The abyssal creatures don’t seem to measure up to the vindicators, but I won’t say I’ve experienced everything of course.
I do like that Meridian is much more centrally located compared to Sanctum, and was a little confused that the Porticullum wasn’t included in the game until about a week after launch.
It’s difficult to say which side has better quests, because the quest system in Rift is so god awful. I say god awful but it’s no different than 99% of other MMOs. The same FedEx, KTR, Collect, and use such and such a generic quest item on such and such a generic mob/object. I need to come up with a short version of that last one. Quest Use Item To Instigate Terminus?
In any case, you play Rift for the rifts. Or the artifacts. Or the achievements. Or anything really as long as its not the quests.
My guild on this server is probably my most active. They are pretty much all level 50 and on a mission. Driven. They’re my old friends from Runes of Magic who I’ve mentioned on occasion. They’re main goal in rift is to become the best geared guild on the server, and for some of them, it is serious business. That’s a whole other post unfortunately.
Faeblight, Defiant side, Meridian in the background
My warrior on Faeblight is perhaps my least favourite class. I’ve gone with reaver, void knight, and warlord. While there are definitely some interesting tactics I could pick and choose from, it’s just not my style. Mixing a bunch of conditions and effects, DoTs and other chained abilities with a tank, just isn’t working for me. Killing takes too long, even the pace of each blow annoys me. I can stand in the fire if I want, but I just feel so sluggish.
Which is a shame because out of the guilds I’m in, I have the most fun on Faeblight. During the week things can be a bit slow, but it’s a nice compromise between my shatterbone and byriel guilds. I’ve also grouped up more, chatted more, and aside from some nagging haven’t experienced anything negative.
I kind of wish I could have my guild on Faeblight with the activity of my guild on Byriel, and my character and zone from Shatterbone.
I dread starting a fourth character to rectify this problem.
My warrior is also the only character I’ve done a dungeon on, and finished all my epic quests on, at least in Freemarch. Joining up with a random group was a good experience for both, and we apparently had a really good pace during the dungeon. I have to say though it wasn’t particularly memorable. Maybe my lighting is too low but I found it to be just another dark crypt type dungeon with no particularly memorable boss battles or fun quests. With the ease of the dungeon, mostly thanks to our slightly higher level tank, we didn’t have much trouble at all and I was bored.
Freemarch doesn’t really have any towns that feel like they’re in danger. They have encampments, improvised fortifications, but nothing you feel like it needs to be protected. The majority of locations that get attacked just feel like, “well why are you here anyway defiants?”
And so those are my general impression of the first 20 levels of Rift. It’s a mixed bag but I think there is more positive than negative for MMO fans. The only thing I have a true gripe about are the quests. I’ll have more specific likes and dislikes in the future.
