Category: Gaming

I’m still waiting for GU61 to go live in EQ2, so I’ve been spending a lot more time then normal in Rift. Their 6 month anniversary kicks off tomorrow and yesterday evening was filled with so much in-game goodness that I almost forgot that’s how games are supposed to be. To start things off I decided that I would drop mining and pick up a second ‘main’ craft instead of having two harvesting classes. I went with Runecrafting, because I tend to win purples in dungeons a lot that I have no use for. I’d like to be able to break those down into useful bits. I spent the evening working on the craft, and found myself at 300 with very little trouble. Now my cleric has 300 Artifice / 300 Foraging / 300 Runecrafting. It also means that I can gain a second lure weekly, and opening more crafting rifts is always a good thing. Speaking of which, those re-set today, and I’m looking forward to spending my day hunting down crafting materials.

The second half of my evening was spent doing world PvP – in specific PvP Rifts located in Stillmoor. I decided against going with a pvp specific spec, and have been using my duracell spec + pvp gear. I seem to be handling myself just fine in world PvP, in Warfronts it’s hit and miss. I picked up three pieces of Cavalier gear yesterday which is T1 PvP gear basically, giving me some valor in order to be a little more resistant to player attacks. I earned 25,000 lifetime favour, which was a nice feat for myself, and gathered a few more achievements. I had forgotten to do my DRR, but I did my daily PvP quests which were quite fun.

I’m enjoying the way faction (notoriety) works in Rift. There are a LOT of factions and each one has a number of merchants who want to sell you goods based on how well known you are to them. Some of the major ones include Icewatch – they sell a head adornment I’m trying to get. There is a room off of the crafting room that includes a handful of faction merchants for each rift type. They sell all sorts of things like recipes, lesser planar essences, and lures to open the DRR. Oh, and of course little cute furry companion pets.

While it’s still true that most of what there is to do in Rift involves killing and slaughtering something, I have found the game at 50 quite a bit more enjoyable then it was grinding to 50. It doesn’t exactly make sense, because technically it is still grinding (faction, dungeons, pvp) but it feels different, a lot more fun – and that’s what matters. Speaking of – I managed another T2 run last night, although I forget which dungeon it was. I believe it was Runic Descent. I didn’t get any upgrades but I won a purple dagger no one wanted (which I broke into bits via runecrafting) and I earned plaques which is always nice. I’m about half way towards my T2 gloves, with any luck I’ll have them by the end of this weekend. I only like doing one or two dungeons at a time before moving on to something else, so it’s a bit of a slow grind for me.

As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

I really like how there are regular versions of dungeons and then once you hit 50 there are ‘expert’ dungeons, or T2 as they’re also called. These are not just revamps of the zones you’ve already done, but in some cases include entire new portions to the dungeons. One of my favorites is Deepstrike mines, and in particular the fight at the end with Plutonus. You can see us finishing off the fight with him here, on the outer most circle during the fight walls spawn, but not in a complete circle, they’re broken up. When those walls spawn you want to make sure you’re back is to one, because after they pop up, a massive kick back triggers and you’ll get flung. If your back is to a wall that’s great – if not, you get thrown into some painful lasers. Once the kick back is over you’re still not safe. See those bright red marks, those are ‘safe’ areas, after the kick back you need to move away from the walls because of an aoe – and you need to be standing in the path of one of those red buttons (they go out like the spokes of a wheel) to stay out of the path of more lasers that spawn.

It’s a really fun fight, and one you don’t find in the regular version of the zone. My most disliked fight is the one up in the tree portion where there’s Bonehew the Thunderer. He likes to throw people around and during last nights dungeon run more then one person ended up losing their footing (but not me!) and finding themselves staring at the ground floor of the dungeon. You can find this fight in both versions of the zone and although they differ slightly he does the annoying throwing around move in both.

I won a wand upgrade, and also had my 3 piece set hammer crafted finally (thank you other half!) which I was incredibly happy about. The new hammer is amazing. I did all of my ‘regular’ dailies, which include dragon tears, DRR (daily rift raid), IPP and crafting. Then I worked on my mage a little while. I’m trying to learn about a good pvp cleric spec, but so far I haven’t found too much. I’d like to get into more pvp in Rift, although I’m also afraid I’ll be incredibly under geared since I don’t currently have any pvp gear. We’ll just have to see how it goes!

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

  The piece of gear on the left hand side is my first piece of set bonus gear, crafted by the other half (thank you!) and last night I managed to (with some help of course) gather the materials required to craft myself a 2nd piece, a ring to the same set. I also crafted myself two flawless saintstones (they give a bonus to wisdom) for the ring, and throughout the evening managed to run two T2 dungeons, which rewarded a few upgrades and gave me enough plaques to finally upgrade the green belt I’ve been sporting for quite some time. I won an epic neck piece that was a nice upgrade (even though I had just crafted myself one earlier on in the day, it was of lesser quality) and a pair of chain pants. I am able to queue as either heals or dps for T2 dungeons, but for now have been sticking to dps as I learn my way around them (plus the tank is typically the other half, who is far better geared then I shall ever be, and it makes the dungeons a lot smoother).

I have been doing my event dailies, and was pleased to see two new ones were added part way through the day yesterday, one rewarding a purple chest with goodies inside for 50 dragon tears. I also headed to IPP and completed my mountaineer plaques, which I have been storing up. I haven’t actually quested in Shimmersand yet, but I plan on going there eventually. I’ve been working on the gator mount quest (I’m unsure of what else to call this chain of quests) and have been having a lot of fun with the story.

Eventually, I’d like to level up my alts. I realize that since one character can sort of ‘do it all’ (aside from multiple crafts) there’s not a huge desire for me to level them but I’d still like one of each arch type at 50. I’d also like to work on my factions a lot more, and do PvP warfronts – something I’ve dipped my toes into but haven’t really spent any gross amount of time with. I’m really enjoying how much there is to do in game at the moment, even though quite personally there’s nothing ‘casual’ for me to do (like player housing, cough cough). One day I’d still like to experience the guardian side of things.

In the mean time, it’s the weekend! Woohoo! So happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

I don’t usually get too hung up on a game based on the way it looks – which is pretty apparent since I enjoy games like EQlive and minecraft a great deal. I’m usually all about the game play and stories involved, but every so often a scene really takes my breath away and Rift is one of those games that runs amazing on my PC and looks incredible. It doesn’t matter if I’m running through a zone, doing a rift, or fighting in a dungeon, the game just looks fantastic. Aside from single player games it’s probably the ‘prettiest’ game I’m playing.

How important to you is graphics in a game? Do you find yourself updating video cards just so you can play on the highest settings available?

I logged into game last night beside the Shimmersand ‘wait point’ which is where everyone gathers between spawns of crafting rifts – yes, crafting rifts were STILL going on. I used the two lures I had brought with me (no plaques, boo) and since there were far fewer people participating I was able to walk away with a handful of nice rewards. I have begun leveling my runecrafter, who is sitting at around 170 at the moment, and did my dailies on the artificer, apothecary, and outfitter. Then I proceeded to do the daily event quests, I’m trying to save up dragon tears for some of the items the event vendor is selling. So far I’ve managed to collect 400 or so, but I’m aiming for 500+

I’m excited about the half-birthday event that begins on August 25th – but not because of any real reason other then the bonus to plaques. I find them almost impossible to obtain (that’s the crafting plaques) these days aside from doing the weekly lure quest. One plaque a week is a little low when there are 15+ new recipes for sale at 5 plaques each. I suppose it gives people something to do.

This weekend I’m hoping to make my way into a few more T2 dungeons, we’ll see how that goes. I crafted a few more upgrades for the cleric yesterday, and purchased a recipe for a ring to add to my set bonus, now I just need to collect the materials for it.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself! TGIF!