Rift

[Huw the Poo]

Thanks Ydejin.  That's a great map.  I also looked up the quest lines on that website and it seems the Droughtlands quest line does indeed lead to Shimmersands.

Speaking of Droughtlands, I was there last night doing some old quests, and I actually struggled with one of them!  There was a quest in which I had to kill a named mob, one of those shadowy things, and it kept draining my mana down to nothing and then spawning a group of mobs.  Took me ages.  I eventually managed to kite the bugger but it was really hard.  I'm about four levels above it!

[Huw the Poo]

Apparently a "wardrobe" (i.e. appearance) tab has been spotted on the test server.  Splendid!

[jersoc]

eh? there's always been one, albeit buggy.

[Huw the Poo]

Well I wouldn't know, I never use the test server.  I'm just reporting what someone else said on the official forum today.  This is the first I've heard of it anyway.

[ericb]

Not only is there an apparent wardrobe slot but there's also a fifth role slot (at 100pp).  Doesn't look like the guild bank made it in.  Can't find the alpha notes someone posted earlier but here are some of the changes:

MM soul is completely changed.

-The lower level pedestal is now 20% dmg , but the 51 pt one also says 20% so i'm not really sure what the actual values are.
-Sniper training is +15% dmg to empowered/deadeye.
-Close quarters combat is passive.
-Bullseye is not a root, and its cd is included in Rapid Extrication.
-Strafe gets an additional 20% dmg when standing on a pedestal.
-Rapid Fire Shot is completely different. It does not apply a buff, but shoots once per combo point. So 5 combo points = 5 hits.

Assasin
Backstab on 6 sec CD, 100% ap added vs 50%

Sentinel

Word of Hope now affects Healing Breath in addition to Healing Invocation (in the raid test gear this is about +100 healing per HB cast)

Purifier

Ward of the Ancestors cooldown reduced to 3 seconds. Also applies a debuff preventing you from casting it on the same person for 20 seconds.

Inquisitor

All armors have changed. They are:
Armor of Awakening: Increases spell damage by 5%, spell crit by 5%, mana regen by 10% and increases damage taken by 5%.
Armor of Treachery: Increases armor by 215, endurance by 50.
Armor of Devotion: Increases Spell Power and Spell Crit by 42.

Life and Death Concord is now 30% chance to cause your next BoD to be instant cast. Instant cast BoD now has a 10 second cooldown. This DOES NOT apply to hard casted BoD, it will remain castable until you get another L&DC proc at which point the remaining cooldown will show.

VK

Ravenous Strength: Changed
New: Increases strength by 1/3/5% per application when a Pact is active. Can be applied up to 10 times.

Ravenous Defense: Changed.
New: Increases armor by 1/3/5% per application when a Pact is active. Can be applied up to 10 times.

Rift Shield: Change
New: Shield an Ally from the next 130 spell damage per Pact unleashed, for 30 seconds. Consumes up to 5 Pacts.

Spells:
4- Discharge: Changed
New: Release a burst of unstable energy, dealing 21 Air damage, in addition to 11 air damage per Pact consumed. Generates additional threat. This ability grants 1 attack point. Consumes up to 2 pacts.

26- Tempest: Changed.
New: 26 Point ability. Release a torrent of unstable energy, dealing 71 air damage, in addition to 24 air damage per pact consumed to up to 10 enemies within 7 meters. Generates additional threat. This ability grats 1 attack point. Consumes 3 pacts

38- Fusion of Flesh: Changed
New: 38 point ability. 3 minute cool down. Protects the Void Knight for 20% of their maximum health for each pact consumed for the next 5 non physical hits over 30 seconds. Each non physical hit heals the Void Knight for 20% of their maximum health. Consumes up to 5 pacts.

51- Accord of Emptiness: New ability. The cold darkness for the void is bound to the very flesh of the Void Knight, reducing melee damage taken by 20%, and non physical damage taken by 10%. Lasts 1 hour.


Warlord:

Call to Battle: Changed.
New: The warrior's battle cry increases the attack power and spell power of all raid members by 6, in addition to increasing their own attack power by an additional 4. 1 point 6 seconds. 2 points 12 seconds. 3 points 18 seconds.

Call to Entrench: Changed.
New: The warrior's battle cry reduces the damage taken by all raid members by 5%, in addition to reducing the damage the warrior takes by an additional 3%. 1 point 6 seconds, 2 points 12 seconds, 3 points 18 seconds. Fixed a bad typo/wording error in the tooltip.

Aid Command: Changed.
New: Increase the healing ability of all raid and party members by 15%, in addition to incoming healing on the warrior by 5%. Affected allies become Triage Weary and cannot benefit from Aid Command again for 5 minutes. 1 point 5 seconds, 2 points 12 seconds, 3 points 20 seconds.

Rallying Command: Changed.
New: Increase the maximum and current health of all raid members by 25% and resistances by 30, in addition to the maximum health and resistances of the warrior by 5%. Affected allies become Field Weary and cannot benefit from Rallying Command again for 5 minutes. 1 point 5 seconds, 2 points 12 seconds, 3 points 20 seconds.

Spells

20- Promise of Steel: Changed
New 8 second cool down
32- Assault Command: Changed

New: Increase the attack power and spell power of all raid and party members by 15%, in addition to the attack power of the warrior by 5%. Affected allies cannot benefit from Call to Arms or Flaring Power again for 5 minutes. 1 point 5 seconds, 2 points 12 seconds, 3 points 20 seconds.
38- Call to Regroup: Changed
New: The warrior's battle cry reduces the threat generation of all raid members except the warlord by 20%, in addition to increasing their own threat generation by 5%. 1 point 6 seconds, 2 points 12 seconds, 3 points 20 seconds.

51- General's Order: New. Challenge a group of enemies, drawing them in and forcing them to attack the warrior

Champion
Talents
Intense Training: Changed (may be a nerf or may be an error on the tooltip)
New: Increases the damage bonus of Soldier's Bearing to 6/7/8%, the critical damage bonus of Slayer's Bearing to 18/21/25%, and the damage bonus of Destroyer's Bearing to 25/30/35%.
Spells: No changes


Beastmaster
Talents: No changes
Spells: No changes

Paragon
Talents: No Change
Spells: No Change

Riftblade
Talents: No changes
Spells:
Avatar of the Rift: Changed
New: Raw rift energy fills the warrior, reducing physical damage taken by 10%, enhancing burst ability damage by 40%, increasing the bonus to elemental damage by attack power, and causing any melee attacker to take 27 air damage.

[Soulchilde]

30 days free...

[Teggy]

Here's the full in-progress 1.2 patch notes:
http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?172352-PTS-1.2-Patch-Notes-4-22-11-In-Progress

Lots of new crafting stuff (including crafting rifts), auction house improvements, wardrobe tab (confirmed) and a new 10-man raid.

Still no guild bank, and still no love for Rangers  

[Harkonis]

not sure what love rangers need, mine does quite well.  Then again, my assassin can take on most people 1v1 and they are buffing me.  O_o  Against 'average' players I can usually survive a 2v1, this is going to be weird since I'm used to playing the underpowered class in mmo's and if these changes go through, I might be OP.

[Teggy]

not sure what love rangers need, mine does quite well.  Then again, my assassin can take on most people 1v1 and they are buffing me.  O_o  Against 'average' players I can usually survive a 2v1, this is going to be weird since I'm used to playing the underpowered class in mmo's and if these changes go through, I might be OP.

Rangers need more dps. Or they need to be nerfed so I can complain. I just hate being the soul that gets no attention 

Seriously though, I don't think the Ranger is very good 1v1 unless you are willing to spread more points to other souls. It has one slowdown that can help a little, but since you walk slowly backwards you can't really kite people. It has one 6 second snare that I was never able to get to work so I gave up on. Most commonly I get attacked by stealthed assassins who stun me. I can break out of it, but by then it's really too late. I'm built more for pve, which is really all I care about, so I guess I just have to live with it.

Based on what I am reading on the forums it is still very low dps for instances, though. I have started to hit crits over 1K with my head shot, but more often it's around 500-600, so overall dps is probably not great.

[Soulchilde]

not sure what love rangers need, mine does quite well.  Then again, my assassin can take on most people 1v1 and they are buffing me.  O_o  Against 'average' players I can usually survive a 2v1, this is going to be weird since I'm used to playing the underpowered class in mmo's and if these changes go through, I might be OP.

Hark I re-rolled a warrior last night.  Think I will be switching classes again...

[Harkonis]

not sure what love rangers need, mine does quite well.  Then again, my assassin can take on most people 1v1 and they are buffing me.  O_o  Against 'average' players I can usually survive a 2v1, this is going to be weird since I'm used to playing the underpowered class in mmo's and if these changes go through, I might be OP.

Rangers need more dps. Or they need to be nerfed so I can complain. I just hate being the soul that gets no attention 

Seriously though, I don't think the Ranger is very good 1v1 unless you are willing to spread more points to other souls. It has one slowdown that can help a little, but since you walk slowly backwards you can't really kite people. It has one 6 second snare that I was never able to get to work so I gave up on. Most commonly I get attacked by stealthed assassins who stun me. I can break out of it, but by then it's really too late. I'm built more for pve, which is really all I care about, so I guess I just have to live with it.

Based on what I am reading on the forums it is still very low dps for instances, though. I have started to hit crits over 1K with my head shot, but more often it's around 500-600, so overall dps is probably not great.

Even as a 51 point ranger, you shouldn't be having problems with getting jumped by a rogue.  You have Escape Artist AND can have Break Free as well for 2 get out of jail cards (and Break Free will provide immunity like Escape Artist soon)

Get jumped, Escape artist, crippling shot, then between your pet and your damage you should be winning.  Alternatively, that build I gave you earlier with Ranger/Assassin/Riftstalker works like a charm for open world questing and is pretty much gank proof (and good at ganking too if you ever decide to )  It gives you good ranged damage, good pet, and good melee ability as well.  It also gives you the heal on kills which is key for always being at full hp and preventing getting ganked.  I have noticed that you are often walking around at low hp and that's just asking to be killed.

My highest dps build is ranger primary, so I really just dont' see that they need dps, at least not compared to the other rogues, though rogues in general are lower than the others.

[Teggy]

Get jumped, Escape artist, crippling shot, then between your pet and your damage you should be winning.  Alternatively, that build I gave you earlier with Ranger/Assassin/Riftstalker works like a charm for open world questing and is pretty much gank proof (and good at ganking too if you ever decide to )  It gives you good ranged damage, good pet, and good melee ability as well.  It also gives you the heal on kills which is key for always being at full hp and preventing getting ganked.  I have noticed that you are often walking around at low hp and that's just asking to be killed.

Right now I am using ranger/riftstalker/bard. Should I be trying to walk backward and use ranger abilities (I'm honestly not that coordinated) or use the riftsalker melee once he is on top of me?

I have two low level characters now that I am occasionally using, a guardian assassin (different server) and a druid/justicar/purifier. It's so funny how with the assassin I am skulking around, getting the jump on mobs and occasionally dying if I draw a second (although that's getting better as I level) and with the druid I walk in, pop a shield, start bashing away, and usually finish the fight without losing a single HP (or get healed by my pet if I do).

[ericb]

I'm a little disappointed in the soul changes especially for warriors and lack of "adjustments" for clerics since the clerics are starting to rule the world here (seriously, they are awesome tanks, the best healers and have great dps).  I mean come on...warriors were nerfed (and nerfed hard) for doing what clerics were already doing just as well but with self healing and more survivability. 

Otherwise it's a great patch with tons of needed additions and bug fixes.  I really like the new AH improvements and trade skill improvements.  I think 1.3 will bring the guild bank and some dps adjustments and finish out the bug fixes and then they can start working on new material.   And the world PvP whiners need to go away.  Rift was never advertised as a PvP friendly game and was never intended to support large scale RvR or world PvP events.  It's not Warhammer.

[Harkonis]

especially with the Valor changes coming for pvp, I fear clerics are going to be the new top dog.

Teg, it depends on what you're fighting really, but you never want to just slowly walk backwards shooting   This is one of the few times bunny hopping can be good, or at least very high mouse sensitivity.  You can run away full speed, jump, spin, fire, spin back, land, and never lose your forward movement.  Walking backwards will never let you get much done before someone gets to you.  If they have ranged attacks and seem to prefer it, you might be better off getting in, but Riftstalker melee other than Rift Disturbance is pretty much a joke for damage.  This is why my open world ranger build has assassin in it. (that and the perma stealth.  you can manage the pet and still stealth, and the instinct for faster out of combat movement works in stealth)

[Teggy]

This is one of the few times bunny hopping can be good, or at least very high mouse sensitivity.  You can run away full speed, jump, spin, fire, spin back, land, and never lose your forward movement. 

Ah, Teggy the bunny hopping, 180 degree spinning death machine. This should go well   Actually, I now use a track ball so I could very easily hop up and spin 900 degrees, or some random number of degrees.

[Teggy]

Interesting, this article claims the looking for group tool will be in 1.2, but the notes I linked before only states that there will be some changes that will prep for the eventual LFG tool.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/04/22/an-exclusive-look-at-rifts-update-1-2-and-beyond-with-scott-har/

[Fez]

Even as a 51 point ranger, you shouldn't be having problems with getting jumped by a rogue.  You have Escape Artist AND can have Break Free as well for 2 get out of jail cards (and Break Free will provide immunity like Escape Artist soon)

Get jumped, Escape artist, crippling shot, then between your pet and your damage you should be winning.  Alternatively, that build I gave you earlier with Ranger/Assassin/Riftstalker works like a charm for open world questing and is pretty much gank proof (and good at ganking too if you ever decide to )  It gives you good ranged damage, good pet, and good melee ability as well.  It also gives you the heal on kills which is key for always being at full hp and preventing getting ganked.  I have noticed that you are often walking around at low hp and that's just asking to be killed.

My highest dps build is ranger primary, so I really just dont' see that they need dps, at least not compared to the other rogues, though rogues in general are lower than the others.

Well, I'm over on the Molinar server with the Wanderers, and I've played a full ranger and then tried some different builds with points in MM, assassin, and nightblade, and I generally stand no chance if I get jumped -- and I use the tactic Hark mentioned -- unless the player is a few levels below me.  Especially if it is a cleric -- generally can't even dent them with their healing and absorption -- or a warrior with charges.  I've only had success if I've added in assasssin or nightblade for some melee attacks.  I always have blue weapons, so it isn't that my gear is gimped.  That being said, we mow down things in PvE.  Maybe the changes to MM will help.

EDIT: Just read that Hark was talking about getting jumped by rogues -- I do agree rogues are actually one of the classes I generally feel much better taking on as a ranger as the ranged damage actually makes a dent!

The assassin/riftstalker/ranger build is a different story, where the main souls are assassin and riftstalker.  Now that build does well in PvP, and looks like it should be getting better.

[jersoc]

I'm sooooooooooo glad they are adding the LFG tool, even if it's server only right now. I just have no will to sit and spam for hours. No one in my guild plays at 2am, which is my prime time for playing. So I haven't done an instance forever and i've been losing interest in the game as a result. So having the ability to hopefully find a group quickly will be awesome.

Added the @mouseoverui macro argument to supplement @mouseover; @mouseoverui will oly select from UI elements and never pick targets when not moused over a UI selection.

awesome, now let me use the raid icons in a 5 man party. those portraits are ugly and take up such big space

[Arkon]

awesome, now let me use the raid icons in a 5 man party. those portraits are ugly and take up such big space

This can already be done, I don't recall how off the top of my head but you can convert any party into a "raid" to get the raid icons.

[Elmo]

This can already be done, I don't recall how off the top of my head but you can convert any party into a "raid" to get the raid icons.

Hit "Y" and then there is a button to convert the group to a raid.

[Teggy]

This can already be done, I don't recall how off the top of my head but you can convert any party into a "raid" to get the raid icons.

Hit "Y" and then there is a button to convert the group to a raid.

I think there is some sort of XP penalty when you do this, I don't know if that's what he's referring to.

[Blackjack]

I had a Rift-free week. I'm afraid the magic for me is already... fading... away... 

[Soulchilde]

I had a Rift-free week. I'm afraid the magic for me is already... fading... away... 

Game go me hooked this weekend...   

[Arclight]

I had a Rift-free week. I'm afraid the magic for me is already... fading... away... 

Yeah, same boat. I'm fairly surprised by how fast I went from loving it to barely logging on in a day.

[Teggy]

I had a Rift-free week. I'm afraid the magic for me is already... fading... away...  

Game go me hooked this weekend...  

I parked my main for a bit since my guild is going to start doing expert runs on Fridays and leveled my cleric to 21. Figured it would be fun to learn to heal, given I normally play support in other games. Now I'm reading the soul I chose is one of the more challenging to heal with.  

[jersoc]

awesome, now let me use the raid icons in a 5 man party. those portraits are ugly and take up such big space

This can already be done, I don't recall how off the top of my head but you can convert any party into a "raid" to get the raid icons.

for 5 man dungeons?

[Teggy]

awesome, now let me use the raid icons in a 5 man party. those portraits are ugly and take up such big space

This can already be done, I don't recall how off the top of my head but you can convert any party into a "raid" to get the raid icons.

for 5 man dungeons?

Yes, it can definitely be done in 5-mans.

[Soulchilde]

I had a Rift-free week. I'm afraid the magic for me is already... fading... away...  

Game go me hooked this weekend...  

I parked my main for a bit since my guild is going to start doing expert runs on Fridays and leveled my cleric to 21. Figured it would be fun to learn to heal, given I normally play support in other games. Now I'm reading the soul I chose is one of the more challenging to heal with.  

Same guild, Teggy. Liege and Kenji are my toons.  We could have used you in IT last night

[Teggy]

I had a Rift-free week. I'm afraid the magic for me is already... fading... away...  

Game go me hooked this weekend...  

I parked my main for a bit since my guild is going to start doing expert runs on Fridays and leveled my cleric to 21. Figured it would be fun to learn to heal, given I normally play support in other games. Now I'm reading the soul I chose is one of the more challenging to heal with.  

Same guild, Teggy. Liege and Kenji are my toons.  We could have used you in IT last night

Ah, that would have been good but I got back late last night from doing easter dinner stuff. Saturday night 2 of the 50s wanted to pull a 14 through IT for XP and loot so I went along as healer. That was pretty funny because I really didn't have to heal them a whole lot and then when we were in the ghost room I was so used to doing nothing that I didn't realize the 14 had run off and was getting beaten on and he died.   However, I successfully healed during one of the epic story sidequests, and I'll practice by spotting random people in trouble with mobs and healing them Oh, I also got pulled into some warfronts with some randoms and helped them win a few matches by healing. I got scolded because I started attacking someone. 

[jersoc]

go pvp if you want to practice healing. it's harder than any pve encounter

[Chesspieceface]

The magic isn't gone for me, just the people I was playing with.  Now I'm waiting for xfers and merges so we consolidate active players.  I think Rift is a great MMO though.

[zinckiwi]

Yeah, same boat. I'm fairly surprised by how fast I went from loving it to barely logging on in a day.

+1. I just didn't log in again, one day... four weeks or so ago.

[Huw the Poo]

I'm still astonished that I can't stop playing.  Me.  This is probably the longest time I've ever spent playing a game since Guild Wars first came out.  I've (finally) almost got my first character to the level cap - my ultimate goal since I've never done it before - then I'm absolutely dying to try a mage on the Guardian side.

Loving Rift, and there are loads of great changes and additions to come yet.

[Soulchilde]

Logged in for 20 mins yesterday.  Bummed that a quest was busted and I had to find the next quest zone since this was the breadcrumb quest.  Will try to play again tonight

[Fez]

Yeah, same boat. I'm fairly surprised by how fast I went from loving it to barely logging on in a day.

+1. I just didn't log in again, one day... four weeks or so ago.

That's the way it goes with MMORPGs most of the time.  Usually I find that I'm looking for something more fast paced.  However, I'm playing on a Rift PvP server, and I have to say it adds a lot to doing quests.  NPCs have gotten so watered down over time ni these kinds of games that it can get boring as there is no challenge.  Having opposite faction players running around in the same expansive quest area is a different story.  Tension!

[Teggy]

I'm coming up on 300 hours played, which is a little disturbing. I'm hoping I can really just cut back to once or twice a week to work on progression with guildies. That's sort of the problem with these games - once you get to endgame you have to keep up with everyone else if you hope to take part in the higher level content. I've been enjoying leveling my alt, but I have a huge backlog and haven't touched my 360 in a long while.

[Teggy]

Video of the LFG tool

and description from the forums:

So the LFG tool on UI has been enabled on the Test Server. Some info:

The UI is very easy to use and quite similar to WoW. It selects one of four roles for you or multiple depending on your soul combo, As a marks/ranger/bard I was put as support/damage but if you don't wish to associate yourself with the second you can uncheck it. IE if you want to go full support or full damage you can.

Below this is a coin+exp reward setup like WoW has. Tier 2, Tier 1, and Normal randoms all give 9900 exp now but I imagine that will be modified in the coming days since there is no point in giving exp for tier dungeons. Tier 1 and 2 both award 50 gold but there is also a 7x modifier up in the corner and if you mouse ove it it says "Dungeon Bonus accumulates once per day, causing the reward for random dungeons to be augmented". I expect plaques or something will be added to this for rewards.

At the very bottom is the most interesting thing, you have a ability to switch between dungeon group/rift group (yay!) and quest groups. So the dungeon finder is more of a LFG tool and not a LFD tool which makes sense since that is what it is actually called. With this allowing rift and quest grouping I'm fairly sure that means that it is NOT a cross server LFG tool. I am not 100% sure obviously and I expect we will be seeing an official announcement soon from Trion about the full details behind this (probably why it was not in the patch notes). I hope I didn't steal their thunder, but it is on the test server so people interested in what we are going to get and care to give actual feedback should go check it out.

There is also an advanced tab in the main dungeon window that pulls up every dungeon and instance. There presently does not seem to be anything keeping you out of certain dungeons aas I stripped naked and still had access to all the tier 2 dungeons. So my only real feedback at this point is that they need to add that in some minor way to filter out people who have no idea what they are getting into. I don't think it should be a number, but more of an auto check internally.

Lastly I really really hope they add an invasion tab (or combine that with the existing rift tab) that allows you to join a force battling colossi and zonewide invasions, this combined with the new map indicator for invasions would be a huge bonus in my opinion.

Please lets try and keep this constructive, there are 8 million existing threads about why we should or should not have a LFG tool, but now that its here lets discuss what we actually have.

TL;DR LFG tool is here, its a good thing, deal with it and learn to read. (Sorry I hate that TL;DR crap)

[jersoc]

I honestly have no idea why so many people are shitty on this. Yes, because spamming for hours for a group is fun.

This is why you never listen to your vocal group as a developer, because they're fucking stupid.

[Sparhawk]

I honestly have no idea why so many people are shitty on this. Yes, because spamming for hours for a group is fun.

This is why you never listen to your vocal group as a developer, because they're fucking stupid.

The very fact that there isn't a LFD is why I don't log on. I don't want to spend 4 hours LFG. It's SUPER hard to find a dialy expert run group on Faeblight. It's not a low pop server either.

[Gryndyl]

I honestly have no idea why so many people are shitty on this. Yes, because spamming for hours for a group is fun.

This is why you never listen to your vocal group as a developer, because they're fucking stupid.

Because the LFD tool in WoW effectively killed off a big aspect of server community. No, spamming LFG channels for dungeons isn't fun either. But clicking a few buttons and being teleported into a dungeon with a bunch of strangers that barely acknowledge each other and get bitchy if the run takes more than 15 minutes sucks just as hard. As long as this isn't a cross server tool then I'm relatively ok with it.

As a player I place more emphasis on immersion and storyline than speed running dungeons to collect X number of tokens as fast as possible to get a piece of gear that has different numbers on it. If actually wanting to enjoy the game as an immersive world rather than a number crunching hamster wheel makes me "fucking stupid" then I'm happy to continue not being one of the genius hamsters that spend their gaming time trying to make the wheel go faster.

A non cross server group finder seems the best solution.