I would say last night was a fairly typical night. Unlike the night before last where I leveled up 2 times and got into a new area, last night I wandered around closing Rifts and raiding a dungeon.
As promised in my last entry I took a small video of some play time last night. In this video you can watch me and some random players take on an Aelfwar Preserver during a Life Force Invasion. I was trying to be conscientious about the camera positioning, unlike the fight with Mar'Kul in an earlier video I think I did a much better job.
While thinking about what I wanted to do tonight I came upon an idea. Being a Guardian I think I will try and sneak into the Defiant Capitol city of Meridian. I am still not 100% sure it is even possible to do that, currently awaiting confirmation from the forums on what to expect when I try.
After looking over the maps I believe my best bet will be to try and swim to the other side of the river near Founders Threshold (the area where you are dropped when leaving the starting area as a Guardian). If this works I will be taking some video's of myself running around in Freemarch and eventually going into the Defiants capitol city, Meridian.
After a marthon 5 hour session last night I finally managed to make it out of the GloamWood area and into Scarlet Gorge. And may I say the Gorge area just looks fantastic! While I spent only enough time there to find the Porticulum so I did not have to walk/ride back what I have scene of it so far impressed me.
During my time in GloamWood though a very cool thing happened, as I was doing my quests a couple of random players came up behind me and invited me to their party. Turns out they were doing the exact same quest line I was so we were able to stay together for the better part of 3 hours. After pushing our way through many quests and an Invasion though they needed to go just as we accepted what would turn out to be the last leg of quests in Gloamwood. Devastated I tried to continue on by myself knowing that the area ahead would be very tricky to do alone.
Just then I noticed two OTHER players ahead of me, as luck would have it they were questing along the same set of quests I was, only one set behind! After getting invited to the party I helped them through those and then went with them while they back tracked to pickup the quests I was on. After a few more battles and some cool banter with the NPC's we had killed the Old Hag and made it out of Gloam Wood!!!
At this point my self and my new companions were tired and decided to call it a night. I rode ahead to Scarlet Gorge picked up the Porticulum point and zoned back to Sanctum to sell off / auction off nearly 4 hours worth of loot.
While it may sound like I had a grand time last night, it was smeared a bit with the foul stench of "griefing". Before joining up with anyone I was questing alone in Gloam Wood, a contested area and PvP enabled. (I play on Briarcliff a PvP server) I wont name drop the individual but there was a level 50 Defiant Rogue camping out side the main city in Gloam Wood stalking low level players. While I understand that rolling on a PvP server comes with things like this I never expected to get ganked two times in a row by someone "lowbie hunting". It was all in good fun though and eventually he did die to a couple level 50 Guardians who came to our rescue!
On a side note, I really do need to remember to record more videos and snap more pictures. Blog posts without any media are a little... boring :(
Ahhh another day, another entry in the diary. I guess this post is going to cover the last couple days in Telara... to be honest I was quite busy yesterday with yard work and just playing Rift ^_^ I found out that I could level up quite nicely just playing PvP. I would say I easily went from level 23 to 24 ONLY playing PvP. Mixing Black Island and the Codex Warfronts.
Last night however I wanted to try something a little bit different, so I ponied up the 4 platinum and bought my 3rd role from the trainer and went 100% Bard (well more like 95% bard and 5% bladedancer? the defensive soul for Rogues). While playing a Bard is not exactly hard, nor does it really require much in the way of strategic thinking it does offer one very useful trait. The "LFG" tool pegs me as a support class and I get into groups nearly instantly.
Playing 100% Bard I was able to run 3 dungeons last night. And even in the face of extreme boredom I got a good look at the other side of the table, support and healers. Normally I start out any type of MMO as a Warrior class and eventually end up getting bored but with Rift something made me want to be a stealthy assassin popping out of the woods and bursting enemy players down. Yes, I totally do that during PvP matches but when grouping for a raid there are about 1'000 other players on the server looking to do the same thing So playing a Bard lets me experience the game in a new way while also completing the lower level dungeons.
Now other than that, not a lot to report. I have a feeling the "game" wont start until I hit max level so that is my goal from here on out, level, level, level and more level. Speaking of which I need to go hit up the forums and ask some questions about my new Bard skills and the potential for Rangers in Solo PvE, while I am away here, look at a cool picture I took last night while standing on a mountain range in GloomWoods.
Got into a new dungeon last night, Darkening Deeps. A friend and myself qued up with the looking for dungeon utility, it took a little while of course to actually get into a group, but once there it was a fairly fun time. Unlike my first solo dungeon event that went off without a hitch, no deaths for anyone in the group. This time the group wiped a couple times someone even left towards the end and we had to get another person (a tank) to help us finish the run. Felt kind of sorry for them since they cued for a whole dungeon run and basically showed up for the last boss.
I have also found the usefulness of the auction house ^_^ I have been making a tidy profit selling the lesser essences I find during major raids in Silverwood. Most of them sell for somewhere between 20 and 50 gold. While I have not really found a use for the standard coin in the game I am sure there is something down the line to spend it on, so I have been hoarding as much as I could so far.
Made it to the level 20 mark last night as well, so that meant a brand new PvP arena, and to my delight the first arena is still accessible just with a higher selection of participants. The new arena is a sort of control point game type where each side needs to take control of towers, each tower under your sides control grants your team points and which ever team gets to a set number of points first wins.
As with any PvP area in this game I am woefully inadequate. What I believe my problem is, is macro's. Or the lack of me using them. So while I have some free time in the next few hours I plan on searching high and low on the forums for help in setting up macro's in the game for fighting. (I also might make a switch to using bows instead of melee so I can stay ranged for a while ^_^ )
I must admit last night was one of the more boring times I have had in Rift, however that is not to say it was the games fault. I finally decided to take a 3rd profession, butcher, and spent the majority of the night in lower level area's getting my skill up.
There were of course some minor rift events and small invasion forces that needed to be repelled. And I ran around doing some of the daily quests. The biggest thing I did was the Realm of The Fae dungeon with a random group of people. It was a really enjoyable experience and the group I had was friendly an helpful for my first time. The only really "meh" part was I sat in Que for around 40 minutes while the game paired me up with 4 others. Truthfully I had forgotten I was waiting by then, when the pop up came it sort of surprised me and I was a little panicked thinking something bad was about to happen ^_^
End of day level ~ 19 & 1/2 (But butchering @ 50 ! )
Yesterday saw many firsts for me in the world of Telara, my first large scale raid event, the first "Boss" fight, my first attempts at using the in game video recorder and the in game Facebook screen shot publisher. I learned more about PvP, including the fact that there are "PvP" souls you can get that give you specific bonuses for fighting other players.
On the low end of the scale, publishing screenshots to Facebook through imageshack seems fairly flawless. After allowing the Riftconnect application the appropriate rights I snapped a few scenic shots during my session and they were instantly added to my Facebook stream. Here are a couple of the better ones;
A nice shot of a Death Rift opening
Me relaxing in Sanctum while the war rages on
Nothing to spectacular just a couple things I thought looked nice enough to snap shot and share ^_^
While wondering around looking for photo-ops I stumbled across something I never experienced in a MMO (mostly because I would lose interest in other MMO's after an hour or so) a large scale raid event was happening right under my feet. You see, I had the map zoomed in to far and did not notice the swath of reddish orange swirls indicating a massive assault on the land. However once I did, I mounted my trusty steed and galloped as fast as I could to the closest Rift Tear and instantly joined the group.
It was a swirling of daggers and raw hide as we battled tear after tear but in the end we found ourselves very far from the starting point and in need to return quickly, for the commander was spawning.
All of us riding to the commanders spawn
I was in a bit of shock when we go there, so much so you can see me attacking the wrong thing completely. (Notice the words "Immune" scrolling up, yeah I admit it, I am a noob!) Afterwards we gathered up our lewt, smiled and said how much fun it was then returned to solo questing for levels.
It was around this time I realized my backpack and bags were getting full, so I headed to Argent Glade (one of the Guardians starter cities) to unload my spoils and start some new quests. After spending some time deciding on my 2nd "skill" (Apothecary, this way I can Forge for items then turn them into potions!) the next "big" thing occured.
For some strange reason everyone was rushing past me heading North, towards the higher level area. "What's going on?" I thought as I opened the map. There staring me in the face was my next big moment for the night, a boss had come to town!
Apparently this mytical fire creature "Mar'Kul" had finally had enough of sending his plebs against us, here he was walking into the city and trying to pick a fight. Well we were having none of it! As Lemmings we poured over him until the whole area resembled that scene from Gulliver's Travels.
Mar'Kul invades Argent Glade
After this mighty defeat I was feeling pumped so I decided to hit up some more PvP. It was around this time I had my next noob moment, Rift has PvP specific Souls! After buying the "Infiltrator" soul and spending a good 15 minutes trying to figure out how to equip it (You need to buy a 2nd role from your trainer!) I set about trying to beat the Defiant's in contests of strength. (Thankfully my side was fielding some good healers and we were able to win a few, through no fault of mine. I basically ran around like a spaz and tried to attack whatever was in front of me!)
Day (Or Night?) two starts out relatively normally. I start by finishing up a couple quests and just generally work on continuing to level up my character while exploring the world and the interface. A couple Rift events started and finished. Then, my first "Death" rift event!
Finding that purple swirl on the map was an amazing feeling, through Facebook I had been told "Death" rift events were something special, something to look forward to! Hurriedly I mount my trusty Chocolate Horse and rush to the area. Join Public Group, YES! OMG the enemies are HUUUUGE! SMACK SMACK I die...
While the first Death Rift certainly made me giddy getting killed so quickly then not being able to get back in time certainly did end the occasion abruptly. I look forward to my next one, hopefully I will be able to stay alive long enough to actually be of some help.
After riding my horse to Sanctum I was pleasently surprised to find I could PvP starting at level 10! Eagerly I accepted the quests from the NPC's and clicked to join the Warfront. As a side note, now would probably be a great time to tell you my character build. I am playing as a Human Male, Rogue with Assassin, BladeDancer and RiftStalker souls. this will make me bursty enough to kill someone while still having enough defense to get away.
Knowing how poorly I did during the Death rift it should come as no surprise that my first moments of PvP were filled with confusion and constant respawning. Apparently going into stealth mode in front of the enemy is a bad idea? Who knew! But considering my competitive nature I pressed on confident I would be able to figure this whole MMORPG PvP thing out!
While I eventually fumbled my way through enough Warfronts to get the gist of goals, strategies and most importantly not stealthin directly in front of your target. I feel I have a lot to learn before I get good enough to consider my self deadly.
Welcome to the Rift Diary blog! Here you will find daily stories, images, videos and some other fun things taken from my play time in Trion's new MMO Rift. I hope you enjoy your time here as much I as will enjoy writing for this blog.
I recently began playing Rift a couple days ago at the suggestion of a long time gaming friend. While he has extensive MMO experience, I come from a much more action oriented gaming class, the shooter enthusiast. Quake, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor you name it, if it has bullets or head shots I probably played it. However, I have always had a more adventurous side and love to delve into the occasional RPG. Diablo, Guild Wars, Elder Scrolls are some of my all time favorite Role Playing Games.
At my friends insistence I downloaded the 7 Day free trial for Rift and started up a new character. Sure I was going to be bored inside a few hours like every other MMO I have tried I randomed my character appearence named my self "SlackNoff" and set out.
First impression? WOW graphics are gorgeous! A slight bump with the default keybinding and I was on my way. (Turns out all those years with shooters I need A and D to be strafe not turn or I get motion sick really quick)
My friend, eager to show me the world, rolled a new character on the shard I had selected and off we went. While the game played exactly as I imagined it would there was something pulling me into the world. Nothing in the starting area seemed to really catch my attention though and I figured I would end up playing for 7 days and then just uninstall. I could not have been more wrong.
After rushing me through the starter area my friend said good night and logged off. I took a quick 20 minute or so rest and decided to have another go at the game alone and really get into the nuts and bolts of it. About an hour or so later things suddenly took a turn for the great! There I was completing my third or fourth "Go kill 10 widgy-jiggies" when all of a sudden the music and tempo of the game changed, little did I know at the time I was about to engage in my first Rift event.
The next few hours are a blur of fighting, leveling, learning and dieing. Somewhere along the way I had forgotten that I did not like MMO games and was genuinely having a great time. The next day I bought Rift through Steam and turned my account into a non-trial. Last night I joined my friends shard and started a proper character with one of my default RPG character names.
And so begins the journey of Guardian Qwicked, not just in Telara but here in the blog-o-sphere as well.
