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Enter at Your Own Rift: Zero-sum game
Ever since I started following RIFT, I've been entranced by the wide-open -- but not limitless -- class system. After all, the virtual world and everything populating it is only half the game; the other half resides in the avatar that sticks with you while you explore it all. Many MMOs have interesting ways of letting you build and grow your character, but sooner or later they come to a point where there's little more to be done other than incrementally increasing your stats by gaining better gear. Not so with RIFT, as even a level 50 can drop a few coins to shape a completely new build from scratch. No longer are we bound to a rigidly defined creation; we are free to experiment, tinker, and try out these roles to our hearts' content. With RIFT's soul system, there are a few ground rules that everyone learns early in the game. You can have up to three souls in your archetype active at any one time; you can only spend as many points in a build as you have in levels (such as 10 points at level 10); and you'll end up with 66 points at level 50, which means that you'll at least dabble in a second soul tree with every build. And while you can certainly spread soul points across all three trees, today I wanted to look at the benefits of a zero-point soul, the "third wheel," if you will, of builds.
So a Warlord, a Stormcaller and a Justicar walked into a Rift...
OK, so the title above isn't so much a setup for a hilarious joke as a ham-handed introduction to three recently revealed souls -- specialty subclasses -- from Rift: Planes of Telara. MMORPG.com unveiled these never-before-seen souls over the past week. The Warlord is a melee soul that focuses more on controlling the tide of battle by buffing allies and debuffing the enemy, but can get in over her head quickly if separated from the pack. If you've always been partial to battle clerics, then the Justicar is right up your alley -- he is a powerful front-line fighter who builds up healing power through fighting, which can then be used to restore others. Finally, the Stormcaller is a mage specialty who uses a potent mix of air and water magic to call down the thunder on her foes. Continuing with Trion Worlds' worldwide promotional tour for Rift, Eurogamer wrote up a spiffy hands-on piece while Germany's Gameswelt.TV interviewed design producer Hal Hanlin. You can watch the latter after the jump!
Breakfast Topic: Titles! Titles! Titles!
The latest Beta build had a slew of new titles for players to drool over. Of course, most of them were exactly that... titles to drool over but not obtain since most of them were rewards for being the first to Level 80 or first to skill up to 450. Technically, there can actually be more than one person who is 'first' as there's a one minute window when the Feat of Strength is accomplished. Still not very forgiving, and not exactly very casual and quite contrary to the "we want players to enjoy Northrend and not skip content" mantra Blizzard has been repeating as a justification for not having flying mounts for the first seven levels in the expansion.What do you guys think of the new titles? Frankly, I think a lot of them are pretty darn cool. But seriously, in all likelihood, these first-to-Level-80 characters will have little to no experience of Northrend. Your realm's first Archmage is likely to have no standing with the Kirin-Tor, for example. The first Paladin to Level 80, your realm's so-called Crusader, will most probably have grinded and not actually done any quests for the Argent Crusade. Perhaps Blizzard will have some retroactive titles, such as Conqueror / Justicar or even Scarab Lord, which wasn't implemented until after most AQ gates had been opened. What're your thoughts on the new titles?
