Trio trouble in RotF

My trio which has been kicking butt has met it's match in Realm of the Fae. I knew it was a group dungeon so left it till I was 21 to go in but I am still having trouble in there.

Group:
Warrior - Paladin 21, Beastmaster 7
Cleric - Seintinel 21, Druid 7
Rogue - Ranger 21, Bladedancer 7

The theme was a good guys pet group and it worked very well while questing or rifting. In RotF the warrior gets smacked about and the sentinel often can't keep up with the healing.

I have made it up to the bogling area where there is a ruffian and two little guys guarding a shrine I need to activate. This guys killed me a couple of times before I gave up. To get there I often had to kill a few, get killed and then come back for the rest.

Should a level 21 trio be having this much trouble in RotF?
Any suggestions?

I took in a 5box there (lvl 18s)... and the cleric, even with spam healing had a very hard time keeping the tank up. They went lying when they said dungeons Re harder in rift

I doubt you'll ever be able to clear a dungeon while it still gives xp with only 3. They are meant to be challenging for full groups. I'm running 5 now and have mainly leveled from 18 to 40 so far through dungeons. I've tried many specs and combos and while I've found a few that work well, I have trouble until at the upper range of level and gear for the dungeon. Some are harder than others for boxing but even so, there's really a set point of dps and hps you need to beat most of the bosses.

Nuts, I figured that might be the case after the comprehensive thumping I got. I was hoping it might be a spec or gear thing but I doubt it now.

A trio now looks to be a bit of a no mans land. Over powered for questing but can't clear a dungeon. There is no way my machine could run 5 clients and at the moment 3 is enough to handle.

I might try a role where my Rogue specs in to bard for more healing and come back in a level or 2.

grab 2 random people to go with you will probably make it easy as pie. Im Running Reaver tank,Choloromancer heals, 2x pyro dps and Sent/warden heals. ive been able to do all dungeons so far. With each mage having points in warlock for the life to mana conversion i never un outta mana. But yea 3 manning RotF isnt going to happen grab 2 more. Bard healing is a pita cause u cant spam a dps key for cadence.

Yeah I actually started with a trio due to machine not handling more and not knowing how well multiboxing would work in Rift or if I'd like it. I think it's actually slower to level through questing with boxing, but grinding in dungeons may be about the same speed. You could try finding 2 more who are cool with the trio to do the dungeons, or just accept that 3 isn't really ideal for leveling but has its benefits at end game when you want to get other things done. With your trio comp you could add in just about any other 2 players and probably be stronger than a 5box. Also, in some dungeons you could probably skip the bosses and just grind the mobs for better xp rate.

I personally started on another server to join some friends and added on 2 more accounts now, which I run on a laptop, and am finding that much more enjoyable as I like dungeons and rifts but get pretty sick of questing. I also see it being really useful at end game to just have my own set dungeon farm group whenever I want it (I play a lot of off hours when nobody is around).

I dont know about being slower leveling as a boxer. I am flying through quests, rifts and the like. got to 41 in about 3 days with my 3 man.

It just seems like the quests are being steam rolled so its quick. And the added security of not getting bugged by defiant helps too.

I run 5 -- a tank, a cleric and 3 bards. I'm on the other side, so I haven't done RotF, but, the way I got through instances before I got coda of regen was by putting Healing Invocation (targeting the tank) on my cadence key. They way it worked, was I'd start my cadence x 3, and start casting HI on the cleric. By the time the HI was ready (3 second cast), the tank would be around 50%. The HI would fire, and I'd immediately start another.

With good crits, some HIs were wasted, but if I didn't crit, I needed every single HI and the occasional Pally self heal or potions. Once I hit 19 or 20, it wasn't so tight, but i had the extra bard healing (plus motif of regen).

The thing is, you have to "pre-heal" the tank because HI is such a long cast. The instants won't keep the tank alive.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by keth

Yeah I actually started with a trio due to machine not handling more and not knowing how well multiboxing would work in Rift or if I'd like it. I think it's actually slower to level through questing with boxing, but grinding in dungeons may be about the same speed. You could try finding 2 more who are cool with the trio to do the dungeons, or just accept that 3 isn't really ideal for leveling but has its benefits at end game when you want to get other things done. With your trio comp you could add in just about any other 2 players and probably be stronger than a 5box. Also, in some dungeons you could probably skip the bosses and just grind the mobs for better xp rate.

I personally started on another server to join some friends and added on 2 more accounts now, which I run on a laptop, and am finding that much more enjoyable as I like dungeons and rifts but get pretty sick of questing. I also see it being really useful at end game to just have my own set dungeon farm group whenever I want it (I play a lot of off hours when nobody is around).

---

IMO you have to skip all the collection quests to speed up leveling. The problem gets worse and worse as you add numbers to your set because, for the large part, the quests in RIFT are set up for solo players -- which means in a team of 5 you spend a lot of time standing around or grinding trash mobs waiting for the uber shiny trinket of lost stuff to repop so all 5 can grab it and move on.

Supplement your quest xp with instances and pvp and you can level very fast. just don't get hung up on the bottle necks -- power your way through :)

Great thing about rift though.. on most collections you all get the item. Only a few rare cases where it doesnt drop for everyone. just pile a bunch up and use the auto aoe loot.

Oh well, I kind of like my team so will stick with them.
I expect Trion will flesh out the Rift world like other MMOS in time and we'll get scaled or small group dungeons.

I have had a look through the Warrior classes and none stand out as tankier than the others really. Any suggestions for a warrior that can take a lot of damage?

What about equipment, should I be crafting up the latest and greatest gear or is the quest reward stuff ok?

warlord + pally is very tough -- but it takes a lot of focus to play
reaver + pally is probably the next best, but since the nerf to reaver, I'm not sure

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Berserker

warlord + pally is very tough -- but it takes a lot of focus to play

---

What do you mean by focus?

It's hard to play -- you are doing something every tick. It's a lot of micromanagment.

That said, it's what I use for my tank and I like it alot.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Berserker

It's hard to play -- you are doing something every tick. It's a lot of micromanagment.

That said, it's what I use for my tank and I like it alot.

---

Ok, that sounds like a lot of work.
I might open up another role and give it a shot.

At 21 should I got I go Warlord 21 and Paly 7 or the other way around?
Or is the toughness more apparent at level 50?

Cheers for the info.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pox67

Nuts, I figured that might be the case after the comprehensive thumping I got. I was hoping it might be a spec or gear thing but I doubt it now.

A trio now looks to be a bit of a no mans land. Over powered for questing but can't clear a dungeon. There is no way my machine could run 5 clients and at the moment 3 is enough to handle.

I might try a role where my Rogue specs in to bard for more healing and come back in a level or 2.

---

"Core2Quad Q9550@3.9GHZ | 8GB Ram | GTX 580 | 120gb SSD | 2x500gb Raid 0 | 27" Dell 1920x1200 & 24" Acer 1920x1080 | Logitech G15| Zboard Fang Gamepad | Logitech G7+ |"

These specs are very close to mine but you have a better video card, I have an ATI 4890, no SSDs and I only have my Q9550 OC'd to 3.0GHz and I run 5 clients at low settings in low render mode and have no framerate issues in dungeons nor Rifts. It will get choppy when all of them are in Sanctum or another heavily populated area though.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pox67

Ok, that sounds like a lot of work.
I might open up another role and give it a shot.

At 21 should I got I go Warlord 21 and Paly 7 or the other way around?
Or is the toughness more apparent at level 50?

Cheers for the info.

---

This is what I did: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0cEhm.xE00kz.g0R
You want at least 8 in pally to get the self heal. I go to 10 for the extra taunt.

You need to spam Call to Entrench every time it's available. Sergeant's Order actually pulls things to you -- like the Marauder pull from Warhammer -- which makes it a great tool for pulling. I will ussually SO a mob, hit another with Pin Target, and if need be, use Cracking Skulls or Shield Throw to aggro any mobs that don't want to follow my plan :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Berserker

warlord + pally is very tough -- but it takes a lot of focus to play
reaver + pally is probably the next best, but since the nerf to reaver, I'm not sure

---

Really? Maybe I'm just leaving things out but I have one macro plus 1 finisher I use on a one-key 4 button rotation in ISBoxer for single target, then the exact same thing for ae on another hotbar. I have the same hotkey swap all toons hotbars to ae/single and basically have one-button spam for 95% of things, then a few hotkeys I hit for emergencies, pre-pull etc. Works for me so far through anything that doesn't have some extra move-or-die gimmicks and haven't had any trouble yet with tank keeping agro.

I run almost full pally now. I maxed out pally and put the rest in warlord leveling and it went fine. Will fine tune it at 50 or if I ever hit trouble but so far working great (lvl 43 now).

Used to run almost full reaver and that worked great as well but actually took more hotkeys in the rotation to not double cast dots etc.

Pally seems easier and more durable overall than the reaver. Reaver might do more damage but not like it was before the nerf. May be easier to keep ae agro with reaver in comparison.

If you want a tank that is truly one-button simple may want to look into justicar, but they don't have all the extra buffs, debuffs, fight management buttons warriors get.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pox67

Oh well, I kind of like my team so will stick with them.
I expect Trion will flesh out the Rift world like other MMOS in time and we'll get scaled or small group dungeons.

I have had a look through the Warrior classes and none stand out as tankier than the others really. Any suggestions for a warrior that can take a lot of damage?

What about equipment, should I be crafting up the latest and greatest gear or is the quest reward stuff ok?

---

Quest gear usually keeps you set up fine for the level. Staying on top of crafting didn't seem worth it to me, unless you know some crafters who will hook you up. Leveling crafting is also a money drain for the most part. Unless you just enjoy doing it I'd just do harvesting, vendor everything, and level.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Krago

These specs are very close to mine but you have a better video card, I have an ATI 4890, no SSDs and I only have my Q9550 OC'd to 3.0GHz and I run 5 clients at low settings in low render mode and have no framerate issues in dungeons nor Rifts. It will get choppy when all of them are in Sanctum or another heavily populated area though.

---

I know it is bad but I am kind of vain :( I want to see Ultra graphics on my main window. When I can get a 6 core CPU (Bulldozer looks good on paper) I will be open to some more chars. If I can't do the dungeons at the moment then so be it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Berserker

This is what I did: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0cEhm.xE00kz.g0R
You want at least 8 in pally to get the self heal. I go to 10 for the extra taunt.

You need to spam Call to Entrench every time it's available. Sergeant's Order actually pulls things to you -- like the Marauder pull from Warhammer -- which makes it a great tool for pulling. I will ussually SO a mob, hit another with Pin Target, and if need be, use Cracking Skulls or Shield Throw to aggro any mobs that don't want to follow my plan :)

---

Cool, I had something quite similar mapped out but haven't gotten in game to try it out yet. I notice you have put points in to the 1% gain branches, I mostly avoid them as see 5 points a bit of a waste for 5% of anything. 2% or higher I will put points in to like the armour branches. Do you think the 1% dodge, block etc are worth it?

Also played around with the cleric and will go a mix of Warden/Sentinel/Purifier.

The Rogue will go heavy Marksman to try and up the DPS.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by keth

Quest gear usually keeps you set up fine for the level. Staying on top of crafting didn't seem worth it to me, unless you know some crafters who will hook you up. Leveling crafting is also a money drain for the most part. Unless you just enjoy doing it I'd just do harvesting, vendor everything, and level.

---

That is good to know. I have my main char as the collector (mining butchering and foraging) and another char as outfitter/armorsmith/weaponsmith who is in the middle of the copper/cotton stage. It was taking a while to level him up and I notice the stuff getting cheaper on the auction house. Crafting isn't really my thing so will give it a miss for now and keep the materials for later.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Berserker

This is what I did: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0cEhm.xE00kz.g0R
You want at least 8 in pally to get the self heal. I go to 10 for the extra taunt.

---

I spent most of the weekend getting new roles for my 3 chars, then doing up the macros and finally streamlining ISBoxer to make it all easier. I also got each character a couple of pieces of better equipment. I also used a few video feeds so I can see when the Rogues combo bar is full and when the Cleric is casting.

I only got to actually play for about an hour on Sunday but the tank is much tankier, the cleric better able to heal and the rogue is still kind of meh.

For the warrior I followed Beserker's setup above. I didn't go 10 in to aly though and am now really missing the extra taunt. Other than that This guy stands up to punishment much better.

The cleric went Sentinel and a bit in to Warden.

The Rogue went Marksman with some in Assassin to pick up the damage bonuses.

On the whole DPS is way down but fights are easier as the tank is easier to keep alive. I have only done a few mob packs in RotF so far but things are looking better.

UPDATE: I went back in to ROTF last night. Everything was easier (but slower due to DPS decrease) until I got to where I got stuck last time. A boggling Ruffian and 2 little fellas. Eventually the cleric couldn't keep up, Paly heal was down, no potions available and so the party wiped. I think a general lack of DPS did me in because I just couldn't get stuff killed before the heals fell behind.
Oh well, my ISBoxer setup got streamlined in the process so it is all good. I now have video feeds with click bars so I can let off other party members utility spells easily.
I am not sure which game I like best - Rift or ISBoxer ;)