Rift: Planes of Telara

[Kuya]

So they're like SE's shitty seasonal events that encompass a server, except that these are part of the system and they actually involve fighting an enemy contingent to the game's plot? Sounds like a fine way to spice up a game.

[Alderaan]

Warlock gameplay.

[Bombur]

Yes this is pretty much the Dynamic content, the Devs were talking about. The Evil Gods want to take over Telara, so they try and break through the plane causing a Rift. Rifts start out as tears, then if nobody deals with them, they get bigger, and soon the whole landscape changes.

So for example, Greenscale is the Dragon God of the Plane of Life. If a Life Rift forms and nobody deals with it, the rift starts taking over the land, changing it into the Plane of Life. Then the Rift will become a Foothold and a Invasion Force will poor through the rift. This invasion force will take over towns and villages where your quests hubs are. Once a town is taken over, the NPc's change into Life Rift NPC's. You could log off one day, and then come back to find the town gone, and be Kos from mobs..lol

The 2 factions can do RVR warfare as well, and take over towns and cites on PVP servers.

[Bombur]

Here are the starting CS's for both factions, you can learn some of it's lore.

Guardian Faction starting CS. They come from a Past Timeline.



Defiant Faction starting CS. They come from a Future Timeline.

[Jintu]

New game intro trailer:

[Insanecyclone]

Fuuuuuuck yeah

Congratulations!
You've been selected to participate in the next RIFT™ beta event!

Prepare for epic zone-wide events that explode across Telara! Build your character using even more options than in previous beta events! Your feedback has been heard!

The RIFT beta continues next week with a new beta event, Enter the Rift, which is set to begin Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2010 at 10:00 AM PST (18:00 GMT) and run through 10:00 AM PST (18:00 GMT) on Friday, Dec. 31, 2010.

Going to actually level a class to 20, or whatever the cap is this time. Ranger/Bard/??? is how I plan on rolling.

[Doombear]

I plan on actually using this invite this time... seems the world has been dead set against letting me have the time for the past two Betas =( No idea what to roll at all.

[Katlan]

So i just got an invite to the next beta event, but is it only for that beta event or for all future as well?

[Doombear]

Not sure, I got all three invites myself. Seems like that kind of luck would be a bit ridiculous so I assume being invited to one means you are invited to the others. Is this not the last one though? Or did I read that wrong somewhere?

[Bombur]

As far as I know, if you get a VIP code, your in all the events. But if you just have a regular code, you will be randomly selected per each event. Also Trion bought 8 Nvida GTX 460's for the closed beta event's. So most are speculating that there will be 8 closed events in total. No word if there will be open beta, as of yet.

[Katlan]

As far as I know, if you get a VIP code, your in all the events. But if you just have a regular code, you will be randomly selected per each event. Also Trion bought 8 Nvida GTX 460's for the closed beta event's. So most are speculating that there will be 8 closed events in total. No word if there will be open beta, as of yet.

thats not even worth DLing the client, to be randomly selected for each beta event

[Purrrfect]

You can't download it until you have been selected. And if that is too much trouble why even apply or register codes?

[Katlan]

You can't download it until you have been selected. And if that is too much trouble why even apply or register codes?

because I don't care to DL a 12gb client for 3 days of testing? since its during the weekdays and I dont get home until about 7, and i raid in WoW 3 days a week? I figured if i got selected I'd be able to beta test and apply feedback for all future tests (this is common sense thinking), not for a few days and then hope i get selected again.

I don't get why you are surprised somebody wouldn't want to install a game just to play it for a few days.. when ppl have a busy rl schedule and alrdy play another mmo, DLing a beta to play for only a few days isnt a top priority

[Alderaan]

Has anyone with a regular beta code been selected for 1 phase and not been selected for the the ones following that anyone knows about? I know i got into the first with a regular code and was selected for 2nd as i was applying my VIP.

Also this coming phase should be the best one yet with adjusted skill points and class selection, not to mention server wide raids. This is also the phase where PVP gets tested i believe. Also, you'll have the client ready to go for the next 5 phases which should include open beta.

[Bombur]

Most people that I know, who have been invited with just a regular key, provided they give good feed back, get invited back over and over again.

[Bombur]

Closed Beta Review
link removed

[Lucavi]

Love the swipes at FFXIV in that review. So funny.

"But at least SE is trying to be innovative!~ God I can't wait for this game. This and GW2 will hold my time for rong rime.

[Bombur]

This is the lvl 20 Dungeon, Realm of the Fae. Notice the season changes from spring, to summer, to fall, and to winter during the raid.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4

[Bombur]

Just wanted to let you all know how End Game PVE in Rift Works.

Dungeons and Five Man Content

Most of you have probably known for quite some time that this game will have plenty of dungeons, and hopefully you’ve watched and read about all the reveals so far. As far as I know there will be ten different dungeons in total at release. Almost every zone, if not all of them, will have a dungeon associated with it, tied into the story line the drives the zone. Each one of these zones has an Expert Mode associated with it. All Expert Modes are meant for level 50 players that have their difficulty toggled up big time.

The main difference between Normal and Expert, outside of difficulty, is the content and layout. Experts will contain different boss mechanics, additional bosses, new areas to explore and new story plots. An example, that in a Normal Mode you may see a group of miners working on a section of the dungeon and when you come back at 50, those miners have finished their work and you’ll find an additional tunnel to explore.

Experts also carry a lockout timer that resets daily much like Warcraft’s Heroic Dungeons. Before you start thinking about how this might limit your gameplay, you have to remember that there will be 10 dungeons that you will have access to. Each dungeon also has a daily quest associated with it; every time you enter the dungeon you receive a quest (in normal and expert) to kill all the bosses and gives the player a reward at the end.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...onChart2-1.jpg

Endgame Progression: Gear, Grinds, Reputations and Content

I know most of you that post here, want content at endgame, most people that I know are always concerned about progression. How do you go from first hitting level 50 to getting ready to finishing the current raid tier? Well in Rift, not only do they have tiered raid progression, but you have expert dungeon progression. What was left out of the previous description of dungeons is that Rift has two different tiers of expert dungeons. Once you hit level 50 and complete the level 50 dungeons you will then have to move on to the first tier of Expert Dungeons. All Expert Dungeons are accessible right away, as there is no “keying” necessary, however doing them I promise you that you would most likely die right away without the gear from the first tier. The same thing goes for raids as well. Don’t expect to be able to raid right away until you are significantly geared up from the second tier of Expert Dungeons.

The higher tiered Expert Dungeons also differ more from their normal counterparts in terms of extra bosses, bigger story elements, extended layouts and additional content.

Now that you are beginning to grasp the big picture on what you will be doing once you ding 50. So now we have two tiers of Expert Dungeons, we have Raids (at least two for release, that I have seen) plus the Group Rated Rifts, and the Raid Rated Rifts and faction grinds, quests to get your epic gear.

RAIDS!!: Composition, Sizes and Difficulty

Raids come in 2 different Types:
Rift raids-Where you go into the Rifts themselves and fight the planar mobs and the Blood Storm Dragons on their own turf, kinda like the Planes from Eq1,Eq2.The best Weapons,Essances and Focus's drop here.

Normal raids-Where you fight The Blood Storm in Telara. The best armor drops here.

Raids come in 10 man, 20 man and Heroic versions. If you want to bring 10, you can bring 10. If you want to bring 20, then you can. Which they do not penalize those players who chose to play with less people. But I can tell yea, it's not easy doing these with 10 people and impossible doing the Heroic version without 20 people.

These raids require some thought, it's not just tank and spank. One example I can give is for one Raid, we had to have a few players to have a mobility spec, whether that was run speed, blinking or teleporting, we expected them to be able to get around real fast, so we didn't die.

That’s it for now, but hopefully we can get a better look at some details, and maybe some preview videos in the near future. I know I can’t wait for the Alpha NDA to drop to explain this all in more detail. I hope you all get a understanding of what PVE endgame is in Rift.

Don't forget there is still the PVP endgame content + The endgame Dynamic content as well....

If you have any questions let me know.

[Kupo]

Thanks Bombur, I always appreciate your posts.

Speaking of not all battles are tank and spank, I read about an early dungeon in Beta where there is a boss with a unique ability. The more damage you do to him, the more damage he dishes out. So if you completely DPS him, your healers will not be able to keep up with the damage he gives back. So in order to beat him, you need to attack at a steady pace so that your healer does not run out of mana too fast.

I thought it was a unique idea and I'm looking forward to what other tricks the Devs have up their sleeves down the line.