Self-Targeting for RIFT Macros

Posted on 2011 August 14 by Ed Park

As you may know, there is an option in RIFT for self-cast: Settings > Interface > Combat > Auto Self-Cast

If you enable the option, when you have an enemy targeted and cast a beneficial spell that can be cast on other players, that spell is cast on you, but your enemy remains as your target. This is the behavior I typically want in PVP.

However, that UI option does not work if you are using a macro!

Take for example the following Cleric macro which is intended for self-healing:

#show Healing Breath
suppressmacrofailure
cast Healing Breath
cast Doctrine of Bliss
cast Healing Grace

If you have an enemy targeted and cast that macro to heal yourself, the target in the UI switches from your enemy to you if the spell cast is Healing Breath or Healing Grace, because those spells can be cast on other players. This can be really annoying to deal with, especially in group / raid fighting when you want to keep the same enemy targeted.

There is a simple fix to get Auto Self-Cast working for macros. Simply add the @self parameter for any spells that you want to be cast on yourself without causing a target switch:

#show Healing Breath
suppressmacrofailures
cast @self Healing Breath
cast Doctrine of Bliss
cast @self Healing Grace

Posted in Guide, PVP, RIFT

My YouTube Channel Cracked 1 Million Views

Posted on 2011 August 10 by Ed Park

Kind of a crazy milestone, considering I started making videos for fun and to illustrate the concepts from my class Guides for various games.

I don’t talk too much about RL here, but I will share that I’ve started working with TGN recently.

If you haven’t heard of TGN, it’s Gamer TV on YouTube, with thousands of videos produced by a network of Directors who cover dozens of games. I’m very excited to be part of a new media company that covers the gaming industry, for 2 reasons:

Companies such as TGN will command an increasingly larger piece of the content viewership pie over time, as “new media” continues to complement, supplement, and displace traditional media. The content game has changed radically in the past decade! Content is no longer produced solely by traditional networks and studios, and the Internet / mobile / social media have changed the dynamics of content distribution and access. We’ve all seen the rich impact that blogs have had in terms of how news and information are shared and discussed. Online video is the next wave
I love making gaming videos (duh!)

Speaking of great video content, I was a guest on gamebreaker.tv’s Aug 9th RIFT show The Sanctum.

Check out the show and let me know what you think :)

Posted in Blog Musings, RIFT

RIFT Cleric PVP Video: Volume 4: Justicar / Shaman @ 41

Posted on 2011 August 8 by Ed Park

This HD video is narrated PVP footage of my level 41 Cleric in RIFT Patch 1.4 in a Black Garden warfront (queued solo). In this video, I talk about adjusting to the nerfs to PVP instant-cast healing. While my healing numbers are down, I’m finding that even at the low end of the 40-49 bracket that I can capably heal in warfronts and am typically top 2 in healing.

Here is the 28 Justicar / 26 Shaman / 0 Warden spec used in the video:
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=00rne.euMooekzo.Ved0tMz0z

I’m pretty psyched that Justicar can still cut it as a viable healing spec in Patch 1.4, because Justicar/Shaman gives me the characteristics I’m looking for: high mobility, solid healing, and functional damage. In many warfronts I not only keep pace (or outpace) other healers, but I help pressure the enemy as well, and it’s fun :)

Since my previous video, I have added 1 new macro:

Single-target Melee DPS macro:

#show Lightning Hammer
suppressmacrofailures
cast Glory of the Chosen
cast Jolt
cast Fated Blow
cast Lightning Hammer
cast Strike of Judgment

This macro contains only single-target melee abilities, and I use it after triggering the mana regen abilities Purpose and/or Ageless Ice. As you may recall from my previous macros, my Single-target DPS macro contains spells as well as melee abilities, and if I want to make sure I am only fire melee abilities I use the above macro.

Also, please note that for the Single-target DPS macro in my previous post, I did decide to move Sovereignty and Bolt of Radiance below Lightning Hammer and Strike of Judgment, because Lightning Hammer deals excellent damage and I want to save those Light-based cooldown attack spells for whenever I am out of melee range but still need to build convictions and deal damage.

Please post any questions / feedback.

P.S. I looked at multiple options for a 3rd party network to work with, and I decided to move forward with TGN, a fast-growing relatively-new Gaming TV network.

This is my first video uploaded to TGN. Regardless whether I upload videos to TGN or to my personal channel, you can always find them here on my blog :)

Posted in Cleric, PVP, RIFT, Video

RIFT Cleric PVP Video: Volume 3: Justicar / Shaman @ 35

Posted on 2011 August 1 by Ed Park

This HD video is narrated PVP footage of my level 35 Cleric in RIFT Patch 1.3 in a Black Garden warfront (queued solo).

Here is the 26 Justicar / 20 Shaman / 0 Warden spec:
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=00rne.euMoogozo.Ved0kM

Single-target DPS macro:

#show Bolt of Radiance
suppressmacrofailures
cast Glory of the Chosen
cast Jolt
cast Fated Blow
cast Lightning Hammer
cast Strike of Judgment
cast Bolt of Radiance
cast Sovereignty
cast Waterjet

EDIT (2011/08/08): I’ve decided to put Bolt of Radiance and Sovereignty below Strike of Judgment. They hit harder than Strike of Judgment (even with the Vengeance of the Winter), but as they are ranged attacks they do not benefit from the 5% Melee Crit bonus and can’t proc the mana regen from Endless Winter. Also, Lightning Hammer deals excellent damage and I want to save the Light-based cooldown attack spells for whenever I am out of melee range but still need to build convictions and deal damage.

The only Shaman GCD ability I have in the macro is Lightning Hammer, as it is the only DoT the spec possesses and it delivers Air damage, so it synergizes with Stormborn. I decided to leave Massive Blow out of the macro, because I am not using Crushing Blow (it doesn’t generate Convictions), and therefore I am able to use Massive Blow only once every 15 seconds.

AOE macro:

#show Even Justice
suppressmacrofailures
cast Glory of the Chosen
cast Jolt
cast Fated Blow
cast Even Justice

Righteous Mandate / focus macro:

#show Righteous Mandate
suppressmacrofailures
focus
cast Righteous Mandate

Mana regen macro:

#show Purpose
suppressmacrofailures
cast Purpose
cast Ageless Ice

Self heal macro:

#show Glory of the Chosen
suppressmacrofailures
cast Glory of the Chosen
cast Doctrine of Bliss

Healing Spray macro:

#show Healing Spray
suppressmacrofailures
cast @mouseoverui Healing Spray
cast Healing Spray

Please post any questions / feedback.

P.S. let me know what you think of the audio quality of the narration. Is it any better / worse than my previous Cleric video? I am testing some new equipment.

Posted in Cleric, PVP, RIFT, Video

Key Changes to RIFT Warrior PVP Specs in Patch 1.3

Posted on 2011 June 29 by Ed Park

There are three key changes that have dramatically impacted the range of viable PVP specs for Warriors in Patch 1.3:

Strike Like Iron (SLI), which was formerly a 2-pt Paragon root ability, has been moved to a 38-pt root ability
The Champion Two-Handed Specialization talent has been renamed to Weapon Specialization (WS), and the talent has changed from boosting 2H Physical damage to any damage type regardless of weapon type (2H vs DW vs 1H+shield)
The Paragon Teaching of the Five Rings (TotFR) talent has been changed from boosting damage while dual wielding to boosting damage regardless of weapon type

Here, in detail, are the implications of the above changes

A. Warriors are no longer compelled to spec 2 points in Paragon just to get SLI

The 1.3 versions of the WS and TotFR talents more than offset the loss of SLI for most specs in my opinion – and this is something that many Warriors have been asking for since the game launched. As such, Warriors no longer feel compelled to put a 2-pt (or more) investment in Paragon just to get SLI, and there is a much richer variety of PVP specs that are effective now.

(I’ll add that for Riftblades prior to 1.3, SLI was not as critical as it was for Champ/Paragon-spec’d Warriors, because Riftblades had the Enhanced Burst mechanic, so Riftblades could cast Fiery Burst and gain a 30% damage increase along with the DoT damage.)

B. Riftblade damage now synergizes with the Champion and Paragon damage-boosting talents

Prior to 1.3, the Champion Two-Handed Specialization Physical-damage talent did not synergize with Riftblade’s non-Physical damage mechanics. Because of this, and the fact that Champion and Paragon were often paired together in PVP specs, the more popular PVP specs did not mesh Champion and Paragon with Riftblade.

Now Riftblade scales from both WS and TotFR, which is awesome.

The only catch is that some Riftblade AtPts finishers, e.g. Fiery Burst and Rift Surge, do not have a weapon damage component, so they will not scale with gear as effectively as the AtPts finishers from Champion and Paragon. But then again the Riftblade AtPts finishers can be cast from range and deal non-Physical damage, so from a balance perspective this may be OK. TBD.

C. Warriors can now flexibly use different weapon sets in combat

With the new WS and TotFR mechanics, Warriors are not “chained” to always using a 2H or always dual-wielding (DW) in order to gain the benefit of damage-boosting talents.

So Warriors now have much more flexibility from a mechanics standpoint to swap weapons based on the situation – e.g. 2H for burst, or DW to use the ranged Paragon attacks, or 1H+shield for the increased survivability and Paladin reactives.

Summary

Warrior has come a long way in terms of design and balance from 1.1 to 1.3. Warrior still feel a bit squishy in PVP, but they can now bring the pain much more effectively than before, and there is a wider variety of specs that have synergy between talent trees.

Prior to 1.3, the non-Warrior classes IMO were far more effective without a pocket healer, and you would typically see more of those classes at the top of the scoreboards in terms of damage and killing.

In 1.3, the distribution of classes that are at the top of the scoreboards for those columns is much more diverse, which is an indication to me that balance is improving.