Last night of open beta, did some exploring

[Redbeard]

Didnt get very high, got to level 8 on a few characters.

TL:DR version: Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee I like the rifts!

So i was just running around and I took a wrong turn and went to a zone with level 20 mobs. Well, I ran into this town at the beginning of the zone. There was a hill off to one side so i ran over there to see what I could see and came to a cliff. There was a shiny (collectible) on the ground that I picked up.

When I turned around, the sky above me was shimmering. Apparently before a rift opens, there are "tears" that appear like that. Everyone has an ability called planar lure they can use to draw them out. So I opened the rift =P Out come level 20ish mobs from the rift and im insta smoked.

No big deal. I rezzed and then ran off to the side of the rift so I could observe what would happen. For about 5 minutes the mobs just milled about. Then, a gong went off and the "raid warning" portion of my screen warned me that there was an invasion happening. A mini boss and some minions broke away from the rift area and ran down into the town and start ganking guards. Once they had killed some of the guards, they started attacking this "waystone" in the town. They got it to about 3/4 life before more guards came and the invasion was stopped.

So that was cool. What happens if the waystone dies I wondered? So im standing around and the screen all of the sudden goes crazy. Apparently like 12 smaller rifts somehow spawned off of this one all over the zone and shit was going DOWN. I go back to check out the town and the waystone is dead and i look on my map and there is whats called a "Foothold". I dont know what the implications are, but shit was growing in the town. I didnt get a chance to see what was happening in the rest of the map cause i was too low level to get over there.

Anyways. Long story short, the rift stuff looks cool as hell. =)

[MiRai]

I posted weeks ago that I felt multiboxing would be useful in this game, even if you only boxed a tank/healer for the exact situation
that you mention. What if you were solo and wanted to quest in that zone? Who is going to help you close the rift and clear the
elites from the quest hubs? You certainly cannot do that playing solo.

When RIFT goes retail and everyone is leveling up the game will be great, but if they can't keep the player base and the lower
level zones populated well... then what will new players do? Or people leveling alts?

[Redbeard]

Those are all great concerns Fen, I am really not sure.

I do know the rifts close after a time. Also, it seems like they start off slowly and build up.

Hopefully they have something up their sleeve so its not like WAR was with PQs.

I know for myself personally Im not a big alt guy so as long as they can make the "max level" stuff interesting ill be alright, but certainly for longevity lets hope theyll have an intelligent solution for the noobie rifts.

In a way its somewhat the opposite of the direction WoW has gone. Were there even any group requiring quests in CATA? I dont know, I didnt make it to the end. Not in the few zones I did though. This is potentially forced grouping.

[Redbeard]

I did want to mention that 1 guy (he was level 21 and the rift mobs were 20) was able to come and re-take the town... he died a few times, he was a tank class.

But then that begs the question, if one guy can close the rift.. are they just going to be pushovers?

We will see.

[Lyonheart]

I did want to mention that 1 guy (he was level 21 and the rift mobs were 20) was able to come and re-take the town... he died a few times, he was a tank class.

But then that begs the question, if one guy can close the rift.. are they just going to be pushovers?

We will see.

One guy can take down a minor rift, maybe, but no class will be able to take down a major rift solo. Minor rifts have few if any elite mobs. Major rifts have multiple elites and the Boss usually is harder. If you hover over a rift on your map, it will tell you what type it is.

[MiRai]

I do know the rifts close after a time. Also, it seems like they start off slowly and build up.
Yeah there are timers on them if you mouse over them on the map I believe.

Hopefully they have something up their sleeve so its not like WAR was with PQs.
Haha that is exactly what I'm referring to. I tried out WAR later than most people, so when I was leveling up, it was a ghost
town and was very difficult to get a group together at times to get those done as well as the RvR.

In a way its somewhat the opposite of the direction WoW has gone. Were there even any group requiring quests in CATA? I dont know, I didnt make it to the end. Not in the few zones I did though. This is potentially forced grouping.
I don't think WoW has had group quests while leveling up since TBC.

[Redbeard]

Well some of the quests in WOTLK at the end of zones I *think* were 3 man quests etc. I could be wrong.

Anyways, doesnt really matter.

Im not really sure Fen, I hope they have something figured out though.

[Lyonheart]

When you hit the level 20-25 zone, you get a few quests that say they recommend 3 players. I think two would be enough for those. When i did them with my trio, they were very easy. There might be quests later on that are full group quests, not sure.Also, the Rifts are not forced grouping,, you have a choice to join the raid when you are near an area invasion or rift. But its smart to join, i believe you get better rewards for being in the raid, as well as more buffs and such.

[Wadis]

I posted weeks ago that I felt multiboxing would be useful in this game, even if you only boxed a tank/healer for the exact situation
that you mention. What if you were solo and wanted to quest in that zone? Who is going to help you close the rift and clear the
elites from the quest hubs? You certainly cannot do that playing solo.

When RIFT goes retail and everyone is leveling up the game will be great, but if they can't keep the player base and the lower
level zones populated well... then what will new players do? Or people leveling alts?

I'm pretty sure the invasions are based on who is in the zone. I noticed that open beta (with a heap of players rolling around the new zones at level 30+) that the rifts that were opening in the starter zone reflected that. EG,. lvl 15-20 rifts in a starter zone.

I'm guessing they are dynamic, so with 10 people in the zone an invasion will be less severe.

all IMO.

[Redbeard]

The reason I say forced grouping Lyon is... I saw the timer on the rift, it said 100 minutes left. Correct me if im wrong, i am just getting into the game a bit so dont have all the details.

But say they take over the town for 100 minutes. Are there multiple places to quest or is it linear? If its linear, and youve infested the zone im in, youve basically shut me down for 100 minutes or until somebody bands together and deals with the rift.

If the rifts are not soloable, I need a group to clear them. If I want to keep leveling, the grouping is forced. Thats what i meant.

I could be way off base.

[outdrsyguy1]

you can level in multiple ways, bg's give decent xp and some loot if you loot dead players. Also can kill the smaller rifts and guard stations. All these other activities award faction and you can get decent gear from faction, but just a few pieces.

[Lyonheart]

Most zones have quests in a few areas. Some are linear. some are level based. I was doing a mix of PvP..quests and rift grinding, so i ended up with a lot of unfinished quests before i moved on to the next zone. But i found several quests through each zone that were not a result of opening them up via a previous quest.

Yes, invasions can overrun quest hubs. So if the quest hub you are working out of gets taken, then yea, you would have to take it back. If your 5 boxing you should be able to do it solo, but chances are people will be there to help. good news is, once you remove the foothold in a quest hub, the quest NPCs spawn pretty fast. But you would not be locked out for the entire duration of the invasion. When invasions are happening, your quest hub could very well be swarmed by wave after wave until they all are closed/dead. So i guess that would be forced grouping for a short time.

When I got to the 26+ zone ( Gorge something ) I was at the quest hub down in the bottom of the gorge. And it got invaded, I was 26 when the raid started and was almost 28 when it ended lol. It was non stop for like 15 minutes and ended with a raid boss.

[Redbeard]

Sounds cool man, im not knocking it at all especially since I dont have a lot of experience with it.

Im just hoping they have a plan for down the road when theres nobody around.

[Wadis]

The good thing i noticed about the footholds (quest hubs) when I was solo (no boxing) and they were taken over was you can pull each mob without aggroing the others ie they aren't linked. So provided you can take 1 elite mob (most classes can) you can just chain pull single mobs and then dps down the foothold to get the hub back.

Also when the Mobs are attacking the NPC town you will find they hold decent aggro and can help the NPC's fight the invasion pack off.

[Lokked]

A period of time after the Wardstone has been taken over, an NPC called Guardian/Defiant Champion (?? I can't remember, he's got his own shield icon on the map) spawns and he beats the crap out of any Invasion he meets, but he can be overwhelmed and has low HP (his attacks do an incredible amount of damage to the Invasion forces). He also holds agro very well. Players can wait for him to spawn and follow him around to help retake the Wardstones.

[Lyonheart]

You can also buy items with your planarite that help kill foothold wardstone thingies. The planarite npcs sell them. You target an enemy wardstone and activate it.. The one i had calls friendly guards to help kill the invaders. Also you can make a macro and add all your planarite items/abilities to it.

/use item1
/use item2
/use item3 etc,,,

There are items that buff/heal friendly wardstones as well/ You will get limited use items in your bags when you kill invasions or rifts. The ones you buy are perma!

[Redbeard]

Thats cool, thanks for sharing guys.

2 more days.