Rift MMO

[spudtrooper]

The new "Arbiter" Cleric DPS build is HOT! I've got more dots, I finally got an interrupt, I have a combat mana regen and an out of combat mana regen and my finisher channeling move is slick!

[metal_dragen Veteran]

Yea, I spent about 2 hours re-speccing all 6 roles on my cleric last night.

My previous DPS build was a 51 inquisitor (which is very similar to the Arbiter preset). I built something very similar last night (also 51 inquisitor). My gear isn't great (only 2 pieces of HK gear, no crystal and the rest are drops from experts and T1 raids) and I don't normally play DPS (normally heal), but I was pulling 2000 DPS easily, which is a gain of about +400 from pre-patch. I kinda like the focus on DoTs more (now have 4 instead of 2 plus 1 that wasn't worth using) and Nysyr's Rebuke hits like a truck (I had several crits for 5.6k during NR channels).

I only got a chance to run 1 expert last night (and that took a while to pop) since everyone is still playing with specs, but I was very pleased with the Inquisitor DPS - I was about 200 behind a similarly geared mage in my group last night.

Having played with the healing and tank soul changes more in the beta, I'm really happy with the changes they've made to those souls, though I will miss Serendipity.

I'd like to try out a Druid or Shaman, but I need a good 2-hander first, and they're not easy to come by.

[metal_dragen Veteran]

Open beta for Storm Legion starts today and runs through Monday!

[metal_dragen Veteran]

Storm Legion launched yesterday. And it was a bumpy one. Lots of ability lag across multiple shards and Faeblight even crashed once. My server, Wolfsbane, never crashed, but we had severe ability lag (up to 5-6 seconds). Trion took all the shards down for emergency maintenance and a restart in the evening, so I logged off for the night.

Got almost a full level in about 3-4 hours of play time. And so far, the experience is just as good as it was during the betas (although less buggy).

I've never seen so many people in a questing area before. On the one hand, it was awesome to see so many people in the game. On the other, it sucked because there was a lot of camping quest spawns.

[Gotenks98]

I didn't get much play time on Rift last night but I will tonight. My biggest question is whats the point of the Defiler soul for clerics? It has some weird damage transfer mechanic based on the power description. But aside from a tank I cant see anyone ever using this. Its just too dangerous considering the damage output some bosses have. I just want to get to 60 asap so I can start gearing up again.

[metal_dragen Veteran]

I didn't get much play time on Rift last night but I will tonight. My biggest question is whats the point of the Defiler soul for clerics? It has some weird damage transfer mechanic based on the power description. But aside from a tank I cant see anyone ever using this. Its just too dangerous considering the damage output some bosses have. I just want to get to 60 asap so I can start gearing up again.

I main a cleric and was very intrigued when I first heard the concept of the Defiler, but it's in a terrible spot right now. It's classed as a healer and it can heal a 5-man reasonably well if you have a competent player behind the Defiler. But it's whole playstyle is clunky and unintuitive.

It's like a bad cross of the old-style chloromancer with a gimped purifier and a dash of warden and beastmaster.

The idea is, you place a link on a player. The link causes a percentage of the damage that player receives (there are 4 links - up to 25% at the top end), after mitigation, to be transferred to the defiler. The defiler has talents that reduce the amount of link damage they take, as well as a self-shield (Husk of Indifference) that absorbs only link damage. Several of their abilities will cause the shield to refresh, so even though it's only a 30s buff, it refreshes often enough to stay up.

The only way the defiler could die from link damage would be if he had all 4 of his links up and the boss did enough to damage to one-shot all 4 of his linked allies in one hit (with a lot of overkill).

Most of the abilities that heal are based around Foul Growth stacks, which only heal after 10 seconds, but can be triggered early by other abilities. But to get a stack, you either have to burn a cooldown to get 3 stacks, or cast a 2s cast spell 3 times to build 3 stacks again. And then you have bonds, that are applied to enemies and give bonuses to you based on something else you do.

I really wanted to try it, but every time I've looked at the soul tree, I just can't help but thinking it is the worst train-wreck of a soul and a nightmare to play well. Unfortunately, they're going to be a requirement for progression raiding - 25% off the top for tank damage is too good to pass up.

In the beta, and now on Live, I've been having a good time leveling with a Shaman build (51 shaman, 10 druid, 5 justicar). It has good passive heals, high survivability, and great single target and good AoE damage. A lot of other people are swearing by a 44 druid, 22 justicar build for soloing/grinding.