Rift: Planes of Telara

[Alderaan]

A couple new Gametrailers vids that aren't crappy video phone shots.

[Insanecyclone]

The MMO Report shakes up the formula this week as host Casey Schreiner devotes his entire show to a special look at Trion's upcoming Rift: Planes of Telara MMORPG. Featuring gameplay footage and interview snippets with producer Adam Gershowitz, the segment fills viewers in on Rift's unique backstory as well as various dynamic gameplay features including, of course, the titular planar rifts.

Gershowitz also goes into detail regarding the game's classes, including the ability to "take a variety of different classes and mix them together [using] the ascended soul system."

Check out all the Rift footage after the cut or at G4TV.com.

http://g4tv.com/videos/49009/The-MMO...eview-Special/

[Insanecyclone]

http://www.massively.com/2010/10/03/...ft-beta-sitch/

The beta for Rift: Planes of Telara is looming -- looming, people! -- and yet the masses are somewhat confused as to how to get into it. This was made more complicated this past weekend as Trion Worlds posted a Sign Up For Beta Now link on the front page of Rift without sending users to an actual beta sign up. Community manager Abigale posted a lengthy explanation on the forums as to why this happened and how Trion is planning to recruit for the beta.

Essentially, Trion Worlds meant to send out an explanation email before the link went live. But now that it is live, Abigale laid out the three tiers of beta invites and access:

* Guaranteed beta invitees: These are the folks who got their hands on a VIP All Access pass at one of Rift's community events. This guarantees a beta spot in any and all betas. If you didn't get one yet, don't worry -- Trion will be handing out more of these codes in the future!
* First beta pool: Any fans of the game who have either entered in a code for a chance at beta access or have merely signed up for a Rift forum account previous to October 2nd is now part of a pool of potential beta players. Trion will pull more testers from this pool as the beta events roll out.
* Second beta pool: Anyone who signs up for a Rift account after the 2nd (which means that if you haven't already, this will be you) is placed into this pool. This gives you a shot at the beta, although not as great as if you were a part of the first pool.

http://forums.riftgame.com/showthrea...Chance-at-Beta

Hi, Folks!

I've heard from a lot of you asking about the new link on the official site that says "Sign Up for Beta Now." I know you are wondering what that means and why it doesn't take you to a sign up page.

Well, I have to apologize. Things got a little out of sync here. I mentioned today in IRC that you should be expecting an email from us in the next couple of days. Well, the truth is that you were supposed to get that email before that new link went up. So to keep from causing any confusion, I am going to have to spoil the surprise and tell you what will be in that email.

As of today, everyone who has a Trion account has been issued a code for a chance to get into beta! This code is the same as the codes that were handed out at PAX, Gamescom and with the comic book. They give you a chance to be in the beta! Your code is automatically assigned to your account. There is nothing you have to do. If you are signed up with a Trion account as of today, you are in the beta pool!

Anyone who signs up after today will be in a different beta pool. So when they sign up for a Trion account, they are signing up for beta in that pool.

When groups of people are needed for beta, a much larger percentage will be taken from the pool of beta codes who were from here on the forums. If you entered a beta code or were a member of our forums, your chances of getting into beta are much greater than if you just signed up after today.

Here is how beta is going to work. There will be a series of beta events. There will be a determined number of testers needed for a weekend. People will be selected from those beta pools. If you are selected, it is for that session only. Once that session is over, your beta participation will be over.

There is an exception. Remember those passes that were handed out at the community parties that said they were an actual invite rather than just a chance? With those codes, you are invited to all of the beta events! They are VIP All Access passes!

You do not need more than one code. If you received a VIP pass from one of the parties, enter that. It over rides other codes. Any other code (from a con, comic book, Trion account, etc.) puts you into the same pool.

There will be many ways in the future to get VIP All Access passes. There will be contests, give aways and maybe even sponsored events! We will also give a number of them to community members as we determine the numbers we will be needing. And we will continue to add people to alpha as we need more people to test our content. We will continue to look to our community for that.

I'm sorry I had to spoil the surprise of the email. But I am happy that I was able to be the one to tell you:

If you have been part of our community, you have a greater chance of getting into beta! And we will still be looking to you for helping us with alpha!

I will be watching this thread and will try to answer any questions that come up. I wish we could invite everyone to beta. But we can't. So we have tried to make it as fair as we can. We do want to show our appreciation to the community. And the ultimate goal is to test in the best way that will produce a great game!

Thank you all for your support and encouragement. I look forward to seeing many of you in beta and the rest of you after launch! See ya in Telara!

[Alderaan]

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/g...1/feature/4590

Rift: Planes of Telara: Meridian, City of Wonders

Welcome, Defiant, to Meridian. Enlightenment waits within these graceful walls, atop the towers of the learned.

I am Orphiel Farwind. I haven't the time to show you everything personally, but I shall tell you of some of our city's wonders. I do appreciate scholarly questions, but please keep them in mind for later.

As you may have noticed, refugees from the Kelari Isles make camp at the base of the great stairway. Oh, don't fear for the Kelari Elves. An adaptive people, if perhaps foolhardy, they are our welcome guests and allies.

From those stairs you can see majestic Meridian herself. Telara has not seen such deceptively sturdy walls of polished sandstone since the ancient Eth city-states. The sweeping towers crowned with twirling machines, the arabesques adorning the walls... it almost transports you back to the ancient Eth Empire! Listen, and you'll hear the chanting of the Sorcerer Kings.



In pursuit of progress

Our more exciting experiments take place in the first courtyard. There, we ply the lost arts of technomagic, those sourcestone-fuelled feats that could banish the rifts from Telara and plunge everyone into the lap of luxury--if only the Guardians would cease their meddling.

If you visit this courtyard, do watch out for rogue water elementals. Meridian is built over a former Abyssal nest, so from time to time a faulty experiment unleashes one of Akylios's spawn. Progress has its risks. The scholars usually banish the wretches before recalibrating their instruments.

Located in the second courtyard, our main portal can transport you to any other portal you've discovered in Telara. It's for Ascended only, so I envy you its use. Try and warn mortals away--they lose too many limbs like that.

http://images.mmorpg.com/features/45...eridian2_t.jpg

Learning, commerce, and armed might

Be sure to visit our military headquarters at the command center. Peruse our tactical maps at your pleasure, or speak to one of the emissaries from our various conflicts with the Guardians. They'll be more than happy to ship you off to a Warfront. Yes, Asha Catari spends her time in the command center. Yes, she will notice if you stare.

Across the courtyard is the manufactory, where we hone our crafts. Many of the brilliant inventors out in the first yard began their careers putting hammer to anvil in our workshops.

Just behind the manufactory you'll find the College of Planar Studies. Behold, the most advanced orrery--that's a moving model of the cosmos--in all Telara. In the center spins Telara herself, and the planes rotate around. Studying the alignment of the planes is vital to subduing and someday mastering their power.

Connecting the command center and manufactory is the indoor promenade where Meridian's merchants hold bazaar. Remember, Meridian is no filthy Guardian hovel, and our merchants work eldritch wonders. Be sure and wave to Sparky, the potion-mixing automaton.

http://images.mmorpg.com/features/45...eridian3_t.jpg

The tower of visionaries

You should eventually find yourself in what my colleagues have generously called "Orphiel's Spire." This grand tower symbolizes Defiant superiority over all Telara. Note by your shortness of breath that the city constantly climbs skyward, just as we Defiant reach for the heights of power and innovation. You'll be ascending the tower via short-range teleporter, so you can recover.

The Faceless Man waits by the first-story teleporter. I'm sure he does have a face under that featureless mask, but no mortal shall ever look upon it. He serves as contact for all Ascended heading into the Dragon Cults' most dire strongholds, so you'll be seeing him often. Do try to be cordial: Those horns are quite real, and his time among the Abyssal has made him cagey and dangerous.

http://images.mmorpg.com/features/45...eridian4_t.jpg

The second story is the Mages' level, where our arcanists develop new spells to employ in the name of progress. Clerics cement their bargains with cooperative spirits on the third story, and above them, Rogues practice the arts of stealth and... neutralization. Finally, my study forms the apex of the tower.

Oh! I'm afraid I don't have time for questions after all. But do feel free to visit my aerie and look out upon Meridian. From there, even the other towers look small.

All Telara stretches out before the Defiant. You need only reach out and grasp it.

http://images.mmorpg.com/features/45...eridian5_t.jpg

[Alderaan]

http://www.tentonhammer.com/rift/int...uestions-part1

Rift’s Creative Director answers questions on rifts, loot, content updates, and more.

In the first on an ongoing series of exclusive interviews with Trion Worlds, Ten Ton Hammer seeks out as much information as they can about Rift: Planes of Telara, the upcoming, action-packed MMOG. This time, we talk to Scott Hartsman, Creative Director and Trion Redwood City Studio Lead. If you have any questions that you wish to be asked in future interviews, post them in our official Rift forum.

Ten Ton Hammer: When you go into a dungeon or raid, are you able to switch your roles? (Submitted by Khalathwyr)


Scott Hartsman:Absolutely. You’re able to acquire up to four roles by visiting your trainer, and once you have those roles, you can switch back and forth between them any time you choose out of combat. You can’t do it in the middle of a fight. That would be kind of goofy. Other than combat, you can switch at any time. I’ve noticed that it is extremely useful just for soloing through the world. You run into a place where you need a little bit of stealth, and so you switch. Later on, you run into a place where you need a little bit more tanking, so you switch. It makes you feel that you have a ton of tools at your disposal. It’s really cool.

Ten Ton Hammer: That is cool. One of the things that pop immediately into my mind about that sort of thing is that when devs are designing encounters, dungeons, raids, etc., you always have to take into account every possibility. A lot of designers don’t want to limit things to where you need to have a specific class for a certain fight. But if you’re able to change on the fly, then you’re actually able to do that.

Scott Hartsman:It definitely helps. At the end of the day, players are always come up with interesting ways to beat the hell out of things that we create in ways that we didn’t expect. If you want to take a good example from a different game such as, “Yes, this fight is imminently doable if you bring nine paladins with you.” If that turns out to be the strategy, then guess what? That’s fine because anybody can become a paladin; technically any warrior can become a paladin for the fight, assuming they went that way and got that soul. It’s not that we’re trying to design fights that require nine of a given class, but we sure could, I guess.

Ten Ton Hammer: I guess the point is that you’re not limited.

Scott Hartsman:Yes.

Ten Ton Hammer: Does the map of your world extend eastward into the islands? (Submitted by Khalathwyr)

Scott Hartsman:Aha! The launch world, in fact, is as it is right now, meaning that the map that you see is the world that we are launching with. It is that and a goodly number of interiors, instances, and dungeons.

Ten Ton Hammer: So when it comes to the islands, is that a hint that there’s going to be boats for travel and perhaps even player boats? (Submitted by Khalathwyr)

Scott Hartsman:Right now, the world does not extend out that way. The mainland is the launch content.

Ten Ton Hammer: Are you still going to shoot for what you want at launch or are you saying, “We’d like to have this in for launch, but we can’t. We just don’t have the time so we’re going to put it in a later content update.”?


Scott Hartsman:Our launch content is our launch content. We already are at the point, and we have been for awhile, where we have the launch content planned out and have what the post-launch content looks like for the first few updates. We’re not doing the, “Oh, we didn’t finish it. I guess it’s live content now.” The launch world is scoped very specifically to fit into our development time window. Some of the post-launch content, such as the art, is already started. This is a very intentional roll-out plan.


Ten Ton Hammer: How random are rifts? Will there be known spots where players can camp and wait for them to pop up or are they really random and can strike anywhere?

Scott Hartsman:There will be some known spots that are very intentionally set the way they are because of the story. Just because something is a rift doesn’t mean that it’s a part of the global world invasion system. There are some that we’ve placed for story. There’s one in a war-front for instance, which is one of the gameplay elements there. In general, there are hundreds and hundreds of places where they can possible pop up, and that’s just based on the mechanics of laying them out and making sure they look good and play well. For instance, if we had a system where it was literally any place in the universe with developers unable to say, “Not here,” where a rift would open up, then it could do so on top of an inn in town. That would be extremely frustrating and make for bad gameplay. You wouldn’t be able to fight anything that was there. There are just some realities of game creation that make us steer them. We can’t say, “Yes! It’s absolutely anywhere, including places you could never get to and places that would piss you off!” The idea is to make sure that the gameplay is fun. It is highly random. If you waited in a specific spot for a rift or an invasion, you would be disappointed. It is not camp-a-spot gameplay.

Ten Ton Hammer: Are there any free update contents planned for after launch? (Submitted by Khalathwyr)

Scott Hartsman:Absolutely. That is one of the core tenets of the game. We have the ability because of the underlying architecture of the game and dynamic content engine to be able to add content in a way that is more economical than most games can. That’s a huge part of the value that we’re hoping to bring.

Ten Ton Hammer: Grouping or crafting, which offers the best loot?

Scott Hartsman:Interesting. We have a ton of different ways for loot to get into the game, so I don’t know to say whether it’s grouping or crafting. The last time I went over the list with the itemization guys (and the number and crafting guys as well), the number of vectors by which an item can enter the game…there’s 25 of them. There’s everything from soloing to random world drops to war-fronts, PvP loot, questing, crafting, raiding, grouping, and so on and so on. The way we think of the majority of our crafting loot is that if you go through the trouble of crafting something, you’re always going to prefer that item to something you get from soloing. Sometimes, you’ll get items that are preferable to grouping. Overall, there’s a ton of loot and we keep hooking up more and more ways to make it happen because there are 11 or 12 different types of gameplay activity that you can do…actually it’s more than that…all the way up the line. We need to make sure that if you play a certain way, you’ll get rewarded and it needs to be fun.

Ten Ton Hammer: Do you have an auction house or a broker system designed yet?

Scott Hartsman:Yes. We actually have it in the game right now.

Ten Ton Hammer: Does it have any unique feature like posting want ads?

Scott Hartsman:There are some features that we’re calling utility features and we need to make sure that we have enough time to spend on the stuff that we really, really care about, such as souls, rifts, and invasions; all the things that make Rift unique. Stuff like mail and auctions are things that we will add on to over time, but we need to make sure that we have the basics and that they are able to do what they need to do.

Ten Ton Hammer: Lastly, what about beta? Everybody wants in!

Scott Hartsman:Actually, we just started doing solicitations for folks to submit their guilds for beta and there is the official thread being tracked on our forums. We are at the point where we want to start to build the pool of guild-less people who played MMOGs. We want to know who they are and get them registered on the site. If you don’t have an account on our site, we won’t be able to find you. We want to have you in. We’re putting the collection of people together right now. Consistent to what I was telling people at PAX is the current goal is to be in our beta event by the end of the year, and we’ll see how it goes from there.

Our thanks to Scott Hartsman. If you have any questions about Rift: Planes of Telara that you want to be asked in future interviews, please post them in our official Rift forum.

[Insanecyclone]

Login to the Trion site and see if you got a Community Beta added. I have it on my account.

http://forums.riftgame.com/showthrea...Being-Assigned

Hi, All-

By now some of you have realized that your code has already been applied to your account. And some of you have noticed that you still don't have one. Here's what's going on.

They are applying the codes and run into technical difficulties. So the process has been slowed. Not all codes were applied at once. They will continue to work on the problem until all of the accounts have been assigned his/her code. We will be sending the email confirming that your code has been applied when the process is complete.

I apologize for any confusion. I'll keep you updated on any changes.

Remember, these codes give you a chance to be selected for beta. Please refer to these threads for further details on beta selection:

Your Chance at Beta
Beta Questions

And finally, beta dates have not been announced yet. If you are selected for beta, you will be emailed further information and instructions. Stay tuned here on the forums for official up to date news and future announcements.

Thank you for your interest in beta. We look forward to hearing your feedback. And we look forward to seeing you in Telara!

[Purrrfect]

I got the email that they were going to do this, but haven't got one about the code being applied to me yet.

[Alderaan]

Just got the code applied email yesterday.

[Alderaan]

http://g4tv.com/videos/49031/Rift-Pl...through-Video/

Nothing new but it's something.

[Alderaan]

Rift “bonus rounds” & PvP discussed at NY Comic Con 2010
http://www.tentonhammer.com/rift/features/nycc10

New and rewarding ways to seal a rift revealed by Trion VP Ricardo Sanchez, plus much more.
Ricardo Sanchez, Trion VP of Digital, came out swinging during the Trion panel at New York Comic Con 2010. “What we’re creating is the most polished and complete MMO released since 2004… Basically, it’s pick whatever you want from an MMO and we’re going to give it to you.”

As fans know, Rift: Planes of Telara is an 8 sided battle royale between two human factions (Guardian & Defiant) and six Planar NPC factions (life, death, and fire, plus the previously undiscussed water, air, and earth planes). The NPC factions, Ricardo noted, take advantage of the “extensive highway system” to spread as rifts progress and span out, creating new footholds in player-held objectives.

http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/90551

While Trion has suggested that planar invasions could be used and guided as part of player vs. player tactics, Ricardo noted that Guardians and Defiants could actually team up to defeat invasions without a loss of reward. Since players must be flagged to directly participate in PvP, it’s possible to work alongside with players of an opposing faction if not to directly group with them.

The Rift progression concept has changed slightly since we last spoke with Trion. Highlighting how Rift battles grow and change as more players become involved, Ricardo introduced us to the series of timed “bonus rounds” that players will experience after successfully sealing a rift. At least two bonus rounds are available when rifts reach a certain level of interaction, which become progressively more difficult with shorter timers. If players succeed, they’ll be rewarded with incredible levels of loot and experience. If they fail, the Rift will close and players will be rewarded richly anyway.

In past coverage, we’ve gone into great detail on Rift’s class and callings system, but Ricardo put a new spin on the system for PvP players, emphasizing all the permutations that characters can go through. And while the extensive hybridization offered by Rift allows PvE players form an attachment to their character (since one character can perform a number of different and interchangeable roles), the system also makes competitive players much more unpredictable. “It’s really a new level of variability for PvP players,” Ricardo noted.

http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/90548

The videos released this week show some of what Ricardo called the “loving detail” poured into the game, right down to hand-drawn stained glass in Meridian and individually crafted snow drifts. You’d think that level of detail comes at a price in performance, but Ricardo insisted that Rift’s minspec is more than reasonable.

Finally, Ricardo fielded a number of questions about what’s being done to make the Guardian faction more desirable over the steampunkish Defiants. Players were concerned about potential player imbalances between the two player factions, and Ricardo noted that despite efforts made to show off some of the rougher edged Book of Eli-ness of Guardians (including a purpose-built Guardian trailer), it is a bit of a struggle to increase the inherent coolness of the Guardian faction. While he gave no details, Ricardo noted that Trion hopes to differentiate Guardians on gameplay – a distinction that will be easier to prove as the game moves deeper into beta over the winter leading up to a planned 2011 release.

[Purrrfect]

http://t.co/tm5gd91
Picked that up on twitter earlier.

[Alderaan]

Exclusive First Look at Rift's Plane of Water, Iron Pine

http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/70...Iron-Pine.html

[Alderaan]

Rift Podcast 16: Scott Hartsman on PvP, Dungeons, RaidRifts
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/r...37?i=88265227#

* Leveling speed matches content.

* Dungeons are instanced and not open world. (nice explanation against timer based content, ala Kings in XI)

* PVP rewards including favor and prestige which unlocks rewards and PVP souls. Can also level up to cap in PVP.


I really enjoy the way Scott answers questions and it seems like his priorities are in the right place.

[Alderaan]

Rift: Planes of Telara: The Justicar Revealed
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/g...re/4624/page/1

Overview

Justicars are healing clerics who fight shoulder-to-shoulder with their allies in close combat. Conviction builds with each swing of their weapon, bolstering nearby comrades and powering the Justicar’s potent healing magic.

Strengths

A Justicar’s healing comes from damage dealt in close combat. Thus he can survive and thrive in the thick of the fighting while ensuring his allies do the same.

Weaknesses

A Justicar’s divine magic depends upon his melee prowess, so foes are wise to try and keep the Justicar from the front lines.

http://images.mmorpg.com/features/46...usticar1_t.jpg

Background

Nidris the giant wolf crept unseen through the Faering Wood, following the scent of the invaders in the domain of Greenscale the Primordial. He tracked this war party of humans and Dwarves to an overgrown temple. Among stones pulled apart by vines, they bowed their heads in prayer, led by a Dwarven cleric who wore chainmail under his robes of office. He knelt at the remains of the altar, leaning on what looked to be a staff.

“Bidding farewell to your gods? They’ll soon be devoured by our lord Greenscale.” The impish voice belonged to Corrigan, a changeling who rode upon Nidris and fancied himself lord of this forest.

“Shed your worldly concerns,” said Corrigan, “and frolic with us in this paradise.”

http://images.mmorpg.com/features/46...usticar2_t.jpg

A coven of winged faeries that doted on Corrigan buzzed out towards the group and began tugging at beards, pulling at tunics, and rifling through pockets for sport.

“I will frolic when I am done with my prayers,” said Thorvin Sternhammer, Justicar of Thedeor.

“A lackey of the gods!” taunted the changeling. “Do absolve us of our sins before Nidris devours you and I use your holy staff to pick the sinew from his teeth.” The faeries tittered mischievously. Nidris growled, shaking the forest.

“You wee winged demons misunderstand my faith. I am not here to absolve you. The god of battle showed me how that fat toad you call master could be beaten.” The faeries giggled and continued to painfully braid his beard. “But the strength of my faith lies not in sermons, and this is no preacher’s staff.”

The Dwarf brandished his maul of cold iron. “Absolve you? I’m here to smash you!”

http://images.mmorpg.com/features/46...usticar3_t.jpg

The maul landed with a mighty thud, flattening a flittering faerie. Nidris howled in challenge, and Thorvin glared into its eyes. He swung his bludgeon at the tiny sprites, knocking some to splatter against the great wolf’s pelt.

Thorvin’s soldiers charged, their courage bolstered by his conviction. Teeth and metal clashed, and though Nidris bit and clawed the invaders, the soldiers’ wounds healed with every blow their cleric struck. The tide of battle turned, and soon the mighty beast found himself bloodied and nearing death.

“Flee! Flee!” screamed the terrified changeling, his mocking tone drained away. “This is no mere mortal, but an avatar of war!” Nidris yelped like a pup and turned tail, but Thorvin crippled the beast’s leg with a swing of his maul.

His heart pierced by the spears of the soldiers, Nidris collapsed with a final anguished cry, Corrigan tumbling from his back. Scrambling uselessly, the Changeling tore himself on brambles as the stout cleric strode toward him.

“I repent! I repent!” the changeling sniveled.

“I know you do, lad,” said Thorvin as he hefted the bloodstained maul. “And I’ve got your absolution right here.”

They say Corrigan’s death rattle haunts the Faering Wood to this day. He had met Thorvin Sternhammer, whose crusade hounded mighty Greenscale across all of what is now known as Mathosia.

http://images.mmorpg.com/features/46...usticar4_t.jpg

Quotation

“Many preach their vision of the gods. They speak of love, and health, and happiness. I am here to tell you the truth of the world. Anything good must be fought for. You must stand toe-to-toe with your demons and crush them. Only then will the gods bless you.”

[Trocian]

Sweet.

I always liked the Warrior Priest in WAR, and Justicar seems pretty similar.

[Trocian]

Stupid double post.

[Alderaan]

Rift: Planes of Telara: The Stormcaller Revealed
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/g...1/feature/4627

Strengths

Stormcallers weave Air and Water magic together, their spells reaching heights of devastation in concert they could not achieve individually.

http://images.mmorpg.com/images/news...rmcaller2x.jpg

Weaknesses

Just as a storm cannot be wind or rain alone, the Stormcaller must combine spells to reach peak devastation. They thus take longer to warm up than other mages and are vulnerable to foes who know how to interrupt their rotation.

Background

It is said the Stormcaller Amunet could stop a man’s heart with the shock of her touch. Yet before she joined Thorvin Sternhammer’s crusade to imprison Greenscale, Amunet was called the Weather Witch of the Emerald March. Without the Justicar’s intercession, she would have burned at the stake as a heretic and dragon-pawn.

In the rich farmlands of the March, Thorvin’s band encountered a land beset by harsh storms and persistent frosts that had left fields washed out and barren. The March folk lay blame on the Eth woman Amunet, who stuck out with her swarthy skin and pale white hair threaded with silver. The crusaders found her bound to a stake in the village square of Smith’s Haven, surrounded by villagers bearing torches. Thorvin stepped forth as the hand of divine judgment, and bid them allow him to confront the condemned.

“Do you have the power they accuse you of?” he asked her.

“I do,” Amunet responded emotionlessly.

“Did you cause the frost?”

“I did,” said the witch.

“Why?”

A smirk curled on her lips. “At last, someone bothers to ask.”

As his men kept the villagers at bay, Thorvin untied Amunet. She led the party onto the March, where frost withered the delicate leaves of the seedlings. The Elven ranger Durnes wrinkled her nose, as the plants were rank with planar taint. The witch explained that she had discovered Greenscale’s minions seeding the land with pods from the Plane of Life, and called in the storms to keep them from blooming.

Together, they laid a trap for the Lifetouched wretches. The heavy rains quelled and the frosts receded when Amunet released the spells she had cast on the land. Thorvin’s party hid themselves within the field. That very night, human cultists stole through the farmland, sewing the earth with corrupted seeds.

Amunet surprised Thorvin’s crusaders with her command of weather magic. She stood back from the fray, shielding herself with gales that threw back the cultists like rag dolls. She encircled the cultists in frost, inflicting the deep chills of hypothermia. Lightning danced down from the sky, bursting single targets like ripe grapes or arcing between wretches in a terrifying game of leap frog. Though each crusader felled many cultists, Amunet racked up victims by the score.

When it was over, they found a member of almost every local family among the slain villains. Disgusted, Amunet decided it was time to leave the March, and Thorvin offered her a place in his band, the legendary hunting party destined to bring down gluttonous Greenscale.

Quotation

http://images.mmorpg.com/images/news...rmcaller3x.jpg

”Should you feel a chill in your bones, or an electric current in the air, you may want to run very far, very fast. You can no more hide from my lightning than block hoarfrost with a shield.”

[Alderaan]

Rift: Planes of Telara: Warlord Revealed
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/g...-Revealed.html

Strengths

Warlords can draw upon vast tactical experience, empowering their allies and weakening their enemies to change the course of battle.

Weaknesses

The Warlord’s focus on enhancing the capabilities of her allies leaves her vulnerable when isolated from friendly ranks.

Background

Numbered among the greatest generals in Telara’s history is Börte, daughter of the Shalastir leader Bahmi—for whom all Telara’s Shalastir are named. Her greatest triumph among many was breaking the Storm Legion’s hold over Iron Pine Peaks. Though outnumbered four-to-one, she marched a mixed force of Telarans to overtake Crucia’s stronghold.

When the Telarans saw the enormous horde arrayed against them, the war-machines poised to spew death, and the elite Archons with their empty, compassionless faces, despair seeped into their souls. Crucia took the first few skirmishes through sheer numbers, and made an example of every captured Telaran’s slow death.

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Hope was already fragile before infiltrators from the Storm Legion began whispering of relief through surrender. Their honeyed lies quickly took root in hearts weakened by terror and fatigue. Hearing groans of resignation, Börte rode before her army on the dawn of battle.

“Children of Telara! I see the fear in your eyes, cold as these icy peaks. Let your fury melt it away! Stand unbent before the forces of the Storm Queen, and laugh at them for assuming you would break!”

“Our despair is Crucia’s strength, so she wants to break us, to see us submit. But in standing against her now, we have already won! We are girded against her victory by our unbroken spirits. We stand next to each other, emboldened by hope: Hope that our children will fear no planar whelp, and will only know of the Blood Storm as proof their ancestors were strong!"

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She paused to pass her gaze over the assembled throng, watching backs straighten and eyes harden. “In a not-so-distant place, my father led the Shalastir to drive Crucia back! Today, I bid you do the same! Hold fast to this world! Rip Telara from Crucia’s claws and break her fingers so she cannot grasp at us again! Ride, my brothers! Fight, my sisters! CRUSH THEM!”

The Telarans roared their triumph, driven forth with the fury of lions. Börte’s words shielded them and bolstered their attacks, healed their wounds, and kept Crucia from controlling their minds. She led from the thick of the battle, manipulating allies and enemies alike with auras of inspiration and intimidation. As her main force tied down the brunt of the Legion, strike units took out their fortifications before crushing their flank.

That day, the Telarans seized victory, imprisoned Crucia, and entombed her forces in ice. Börte’s tactics would be studied for generations to come, but only Warlords of her tradition understood that it was inspiration, not mere strategy, that shattered the storm that day.

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Quotation

“I know the battlefield like my own soul. Stand beside me, trust in my guidance, and I will never let you fall.”

[Gokulo]

Damn, so many choices already, they're making it hard D:

[Lucavi]

Too many purchasable games on the horizon. This does not bode well for my wallet.