Rift's claim to be a "next gen MMO" is full of crap, but I never took that claim seriously. It does (or did) have potential and although I did not enjoy Beta 6 as much as 4 & 5, I will give Beta 7 (the open beta) a chance to improve my opinion of the game.
Beta 5 introduced public grouping (to accommodate healers) and IMO it is ruining the game by encouraging zergfests. The default for grouping is set at "join public groups" which means that every time a rift raid group is within range you will automatically join it. Changing the party setting to "private" fixes this, but that is not the only issue I have with grouping.
Planar tears can either be opened or closed by players (abilities are now listed in the Ascended powers window and additional powers can be purchased from planar vendors), and if left alone will form a rift. I don't remember which beta introduced the timed rifts (self-closing) but it is still in the game and something rift runners do not appreciate. From what I've observed, the occurrence of rifts and invasions are based on shard population.
Quests are horribly linear, especially on the Defiant side, but I dislike quests so questing will never be a selling point for games I play. The nice thing about Rift is you do not have to do them. In fact, rift runners will level faster and have more fun than those who concentrate on questing (although the fun was significantly diminshed when rift running became zergfests). The only reason I did the quests during the beta was to get an idea of how the factions were balanced in terms of game play (they aren't).
* Xiuhcoatl is laughing at Ashock for wasting his time questing.
The dungeons* offer a change of scenery from rifting, as does treasure hunting (there are lots of puzzles and Easter eggs to reward the explorer types). It is possible to do the dungeons in the opposing faction's zones but the journey might not be worth it to the less adventurous.
The world size seems very small to me and that is one of my concerns. The third zone, Scarlet Gorge, (as are all zones that follow it) is shared by both factions which might compromise questing speed during peak hours. I did not encounter any hangups but I was questing mostly during off hours. The thing that bothered me most about the shared zones were rift related (I don't like to share my rifts
).
There is also the option to level and gear up via PvP (Warfronts). For each class there is a PvP soul to unlock. I didn't do any PvP'ing so I won't comment.
Other Observations:
-Crafting was dull and unrewarding, but I wasn't expecting anything spectacular since Trion is targeting WoW subscribers.
-The 10-man dungeon raids have been pulled from the game, but the 10-man rift raids are still in. AFAIK the L50 heroic dungeons and rifts and the 20-man raids are also still in.
-My main gripe with Rift and every other game of this genre is the lack of inventory space. Apparently Trion is working hard to remedy this but so far their efforts have been lackluster at best.
I will give Trion one more chance to sell me their game, which is more than I have given most games.
If you want to hook up, send me a PM.
*I have been to 4 dungeons and enjoyed them all. There have been quite a few complaints regarding the difficulty of some boss fights but I liked them just the way they are.
Beta 5 introduced public grouping (to accommodate healers) and IMO it is ruining the game by encouraging zergfests. The default for grouping is set at "join public groups" which means that every time a rift raid group is within range you will automatically join it. Changing the party setting to "private" fixes this, but that is not the only issue I have with grouping.
Planar tears can either be opened or closed by players (abilities are now listed in the Ascended powers window and additional powers can be purchased from planar vendors), and if left alone will form a rift. I don't remember which beta introduced the timed rifts (self-closing) but it is still in the game and something rift runners do not appreciate. From what I've observed, the occurrence of rifts and invasions are based on shard population.
Quests are horribly linear, especially on the Defiant side, but I dislike quests so questing will never be a selling point for games I play. The nice thing about Rift is you do not have to do them. In fact, rift runners will level faster and have more fun than those who concentrate on questing (although the fun was significantly diminshed when rift running became zergfests). The only reason I did the quests during the beta was to get an idea of how the factions were balanced in terms of game play (they aren't).
* Xiuhcoatl is laughing at Ashock for wasting his time questing.
The dungeons* offer a change of scenery from rifting, as does treasure hunting (there are lots of puzzles and Easter eggs to reward the explorer types). It is possible to do the dungeons in the opposing faction's zones but the journey might not be worth it to the less adventurous.
The world size seems very small to me and that is one of my concerns. The third zone, Scarlet Gorge, (as are all zones that follow it) is shared by both factions which might compromise questing speed during peak hours. I did not encounter any hangups but I was questing mostly during off hours. The thing that bothered me most about the shared zones were rift related (I don't like to share my rifts
). There is also the option to level and gear up via PvP (Warfronts). For each class there is a PvP soul to unlock. I didn't do any PvP'ing so I won't comment.
Other Observations:
-Crafting was dull and unrewarding, but I wasn't expecting anything spectacular since Trion is targeting WoW subscribers.
-The 10-man dungeon raids have been pulled from the game, but the 10-man rift raids are still in. AFAIK the L50 heroic dungeons and rifts and the 20-man raids are also still in.
-My main gripe with Rift and every other game of this genre is the lack of inventory space. Apparently Trion is working hard to remedy this but so far their efforts have been lackluster at best.
I will give Trion one more chance to sell me their game, which is more than I have given most games.
If you want to hook up, send me a PM.
*I have been to 4 dungeons and enjoyed them all. There have been quite a few complaints regarding the difficulty of some boss fights but I liked them just the way they are.