Woot! I’ve published my first Rift PVP video:
This HD video is narrated footage of my level 15 Warrior in a PVP “battleground” in the new MMORPG Rift.
As I mentioned in the video, in Rift each class for a given spec can choose 3 out of 9 talent trees, which provides a huge amount of customization.
Here is my spec:
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0c_Lh..t0s0b.xbo
My particular build relies on the following synergistic mechanics:
1. some key Riftblade abilities – e.g. Fiery Burst DoT, Flamespear, etc) do not scale based on weapon damage, therefore using a 1H isn’t a significant DPS loss
2. many Riftblade abilities deal non-Physical damage, which I like, as all targets (including Plate wearers) feel equally squishy
3. it’s a reasonably durable build given that I have a shield and points in the “tank” Paladin tree
Tips:
1. Build APts (Attack Points) from range using Flamespear
2. Remember that Flamespear can apply Fiery Burst
3. Make decisions on what abilities don’t synergize with your spec. For example, I use Punishing Blow instead of Righteous Blow, because PB has a larger static damage component
4. Reactive abilities often have favorable mechanics – e.g. Retaliation has a low mana cost, is off the GCD, and delivers good damage – so make sure to hotkey/macro them accordingly.
Errata:
1. as I mentioned in the video at level 15 I should have 12 points in the Riftblade tree not 10
2. my friend Cas (Nathan) is a Warden not Warrior. He plays a melee healer similar to Warhammer Warrior Priest but I don’t really know any class mechanics yet aside from Warrior
Obviously I have a LOT to learn about Rift, given that I only starting playing on Feb 24th.
Stay tuned for more videos! I may eventually write a Riftblade / Paladin 1H Guide.
If you have questions/comments/feedback, post ’em!
Taugrim's MMO Blog 
You may consider Void Knight as your 3rd soul, over Champion… it gives you another class mechanic in “Pacts” and with 4 points spent you can do high damage with Discharge (6 points gets you controllable Pact generation). That’s the setup I was playing with in the last round of beta, though admittedly I never got higher than about level 18 and Discharge and Pact rate of generation got balanced (nerfed, if you will) in the last patch before the head start began. It really was OP before, so it still seems viable now.
Haven’t messed with it since ‘launch’, been too busy with my Rogue for now. Gotta say, glad I’m seeing you in Rift. I’ve been a fan of your approach to MMOs for a bit now, love having your insight. And I couldn’t resist pounding on you a bit when I saw you in a Warfront the other night ;) … although I felt bad that you were only level 11 at the time lol.
-Arienette@Briarcliff
P.S. – It’s not really clear looking at the soul tree, but Pacts stack up to 10 times. Therefore Discharge can do up to 10x whatever the number in the tooltip says.
Also, didn’t realize that Devouring Blow also generates pacts, I was referencing Pact Conversion when I mentioned spending 6 points. Both mean spending AP for Pacts (notice Pacts still generate with Void off non-physical damage), although DB requires a target in melee range and PC can be used at any time.
DB also may be slightly less damage than other AP finishers (added utility of mana drain), but the net DPS gain seemed worthwhile to me when you start launching off 10-pact Discharges…
Anyway, just clarifying a bit. I’ll leave the theorycrafting up to you ;)
You may consider Void Knight as your 3rd soul, over Champion… it gives you another class mechanic in “Pacts” and with 4 points spent you can do high damage with Discharge
Would you take VK over Vindicator as your 3rd tree for PVP?
That’s really the question for me. Vind has things such as Guard that look to be must-have for PVP.
And I couldn’t resist pounding on you a bit when I saw you in a Warfront the other night ;) … although I felt bad that you were only level 11 at the time lol.
LOL!!!
That’s hilarious. I hope to return the favor another time.
I have decided to level steadily / gradually. Especially as I am trying to level up my Runecrafting along with a friend who is working on Armorsmithing and Weaponsmithing.
Aah, see… there my low-level Warrior experience shows. I just glanced at Vindicator and that’s definitely the way to go once you can start dumping some points into it (or as soon as you can get it, assuming you’re anxious to get Break Free). Some really cool stuff in there, especially for survivability/support. To my understanding, each tier is unlocked with each prestige rank, but 10 points is still probably more than you’ll spend in it very soon anyway.
VK was fun for blowing stuff up, though. Especially before the nerf.
Very nice video, glad to see you in Rift. I have also been playing mostly riftblade while testing different secondary souls. So far I have tried out reaver, void knight, and paladin and I’ve also found that riftblade/paladin have nice synergy together.
To give you something to look forward to, the next available warfont when leveling “The Codex” is a ton of fun and I personally find it to be much more enjoyable than “Black Garden”. See you on the battlefield :)
Great video commentary as always, man it gives me shivers. Doesn’t it just echo WAR?
Good times.
You’re a beast already, very easy to heal.
I’m glad we’re on the same server in a game, finally.
:)
Sorry to see that you left us Taugrim. I’m getting pretty worn out on Warcraft these days, especially with these proposed changes in 4.1. You seem to be enjoying Rift so far… I have been thinking of trying it out but I’m not sure if I want to drop the money on it yet. You think it’s worthwhile to switch? I usually stick away from getting in on games on the ground floor. I’ve been burned a few times by doing that. Let me know what you think.
I have been thinking of trying it out but I’m not sure if I want to drop the money on it yet. You think it’s worthwhile to switch? I usually stick away from getting in on games on the ground floor. I’ve been burned a few times by doing that.
Short answer: yes
Usually games right after v1.0 launch are very buggy and unstable.
Rift has been very stable, with minimal downtime. Trion is constantly patching the game, every day I login and download a patch of fixes.
I’ve been burned by other games too, and I have no desire to be some company’s paying Beta tester LOL.
Rift is bona fide. There are some missing options in the UI, but aside from that, it’s very polished and fun in PVP and (gasp) PVE.
Thanks for the quick reply… I’ll have to think it over some.
Moving backwards is situational. If you are snared and fighting someone who relies heavily on rear positionals, you can keep them off your back by snaring them, keeping them in front of you, and moving backwards. Also, In a confined space you might not be able to circle strafe to 5-8 kite but instead you might have to move in and out. I’d never unbind backwards movement.
There is a huge difference in using backward movement intelligently and moviing backwards because you don’t have your abilities keybound (like the person in the movie). :)
There is a huge difference in using backward movement intelligently and moviing backwards because you don’t have your abilities keybound (like the person in the movie)
Understood.
In my experience the majority (easily 90+%) of people who backpedal in PVP are not doing it as you suggest though. They simply can’t deal with a mobile opponent.
No doubt. ;P
How are queue times as Defiant? Ended up going Guardian for the instaqueues.
In the 10-19 bracket as a Defiant, queues pop in under a minute typically.
I gravitated to a Paladin/Riftblade in beta, although I’m more Paladin than Riftblade. They should mesh well. Ranged snare, ranged damage, AoEs, reactive abilities, passive defensive procs that heal and do damage. Paladins get a charge ability which is very helpful, not sure about Riftblades off the top of my head.
It looks like you use melee when in melee range and flamespear when at range. You could adjust your macro to have:
cast searing strike
cast flamespear
This will use searing strike when in melee range and flamespear when not in melee range, basically saving a keybind. Of course, you could just use flamespear in melee range too. :)
I have a feeling people are going to complain about the macro system as being too powerful for nonGCD reactives, autoselect ranged/melee, and rotations with abilities that have a cooldown (like aggressive block).
This will use searing strike when in melee range and flamespear when not in melee range, basically saving a keybind. Of course, you could just use flamespear in melee range too
At level 16-18, even with a Blue 1H weapon, FS outdamages SS. So I’m using FS for now, even in melee range. Sounds weird I know.
I have a feeling people are going to complain about the macro system as being too powerful for nonGCD reactives
They might, although with the high number of skills that each class has, getting them to practically fit on skillbars/keybinds would be a challenge. It’s a challenge anyway.
I’ll send you a screenshot or I might upload a video, you will see how crazy my bars look at the moment. At level 22 I have…8+ meleé ‘blows’ I need to revolve.
1 de-buffs the enemy’s AP and SP, 1 has a tiny DoT I need to maintain, one is a long cooldown high burst, 1 hurts the enemy every time he/she attacks me and 1 buffs my pets stats by 50% and another is my standard spammable.
Oh and I have one that is an AoE, and one that is reactive on a dodge/parry if that counts.
That’s a whole load of revolving!
I’ve figured a way around it.
I made a macro for spamming the debuffs one first, they have the longest cooldown, then I have another macro for spamming my high burst blows, I hit the reactive and DoT one manually just because I feel it’s too automated if I don’t, though I could just whack it in those macros if I wanted to.
My AoE and normal blow is separate. So when attacking anything, my rotation is like:
1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5.
I’m level 22. How bloody crazy is that?!!?!?!?
Though I see you did what I did, I still had those blows in macros on another bar so I could see the cooldown still and know when to hit them.
Sorry If I lost you, it is hard to explain in text.
Image fitting description
http://img545.imageshack.us/f/riftmeleeat22.jpg/
Point is, God help me at level 50.
LMAO. Exactly.
Finding a good skill bar / macros setup is going to make a huge difference in this game.
This feels like LOTRO or WAR where there are many situational abilities to use.
I have a feeling people are going to complain about the macro system as being too powerful for nonGCD reactives, autoselect ranged/melee, and rotations with abilities that have a cooldown (like aggressive block).
Here’s an interesting thread you might want to look at:
http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?100839-Macro-Primer-for-the-Warrior
The OP of that thread basically said that the Devs have already adjusted the macro system in Beta, and he thinks it will stay as-is.
If we can’t macro like this…
cast A (reactive)
cast B (cooldown ability)
cast C (spammable)
…it is going to be very painful to find room for 30+ abilities in a functional way.
I’ve already written about 6 macros that I am finding highly useful, which still requiring thought as to use.
Some people are over-macroing like 6-8 abilities in 1 macro, but IMO you lose too much control when you do that.
wow.nice video.Game looks great.I will be joining up soon.So tired of wow.I was leveling my warrior to 85 to arena with Necro,but it just isn’t fun anymore.Arms is so op and will be more so after patch
Looking forward to learn something new.Hope to see ya soon
Roll on Harrow (one of two US RP-PVP servers). And no, I don’t RP. I play on RP-PVP servers because the community tends to be strong.
Komuri and I are already there, and Nathan whom I know from blogging over the years.
Rift is a very fun game so far, highly highly engaging.
They have a simple but very gripping PVE concept – mobs coordinate attacks (they come in via Rifts) and try to capture towns. It’s fun fighting them off.
First time poster, long time reader.
I have been reading your blog here for quite some time. Rift seems very interesting, however, I (like others) have been burned by dropping the money on trying a game before. Is there any word of them offering a one week trial or something of the like? I would love to give this game a shot, but I (a) don’t want to drop the money to try it, and (b) all my friends / girlfriend play WoW still (including me).
Honestly, I have become rather bored with WoW. I always seem to have to be playing some sort of MMO. Rift seems very engaging and will maybe fill that void in my life.
Also, not that enjoy a very tedious / long leveling experience, but how fast do you level? I don’t want it to take eons, but I also don’t want to sit down for a week and be max level.
The paladin seems like fun (I play prot / holy in PvE and PvP, respectively). I don’t even own the game and have spent many an hour fiddling with the soul builder. >.<
Anywho, keep up the good work. I look forward to seeing more of your videos!
Taugrim, just wanted to thank you for starting to blog about Rift. I followed your posts in WoW but I too have made a switch to Rift.
Thanks again and I look forward to learning more as time goes on!
Hey i was following ur RB/Pally build and last i left off u was like lvl 18. Any update on it? I would love to hear more of about it. Thank you
Posting a level 21 video now. Check back on my blog main page in 10 minutes :)
Also i am not good at writing up a rotation of skills and macros. My RB/pally is only just starting out, im at like 15 now. Could u help me out on skill rotation and writing up a macro?
https://taugrim.com/2011/03/05/rift-warrior-video-volume-2/
And there is the 2nd video:)
cool vid man. do u do them macros in the order that u wrote them down? Also the link to ur build isnt showing up. even tried to copy and past it no luck. Can u post it again the build at 21. Thank you
Hey man! it’s Kash. I’e seriously been thinking about trying rift but i reall dont want to spend money on it unless i know i’ll like it. I was just wondering what your true thoughts were towards the game. Thanks dude it’d be fun to pvp with you again on there.
Most fun PVP I’ve had since WAR, except this game is better.
Will the endgame World PVP be great? Can’t say, still have 25 more levels to go :)
But yes, for MMO players I definitely recommend the game.
Are you Defiant or Guardian, Taugrim?
Btw nice vid, thanks for posting it up.
Defiant.
I don’t really care which faction I play. My real life friend and his co-worker wanted Defiant so I rolled the same.