Rift

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• A Call For Help: With me dipping my toes in the pool that is WoW, I have now tasked myself with ensuring that I get my monies worth. Come hell or high water I am going to have fun in WoW damn it. Sure I am looking forward to the expansion but who the hell knows when it will drop? With that said, I have to come up with something entertaining to do until that time. As I have begun to look around Azeroth there is a sudden realization that I have missed some content. There are new and old instances I have never [...]
• The Rest of the Story: A couple of days ago I wrote about the dance killing WoW. Today I am going to let you in on my dirty little secret. I really, really want to play WoW again. But I don’t want to play Cataclysm’s version of WoW. So I am waiting, waiting for the developers to get it right. When I jumped ship to Rift, I wasn’t sure what I was looking for. I knew exactly what I didn’t want (the dance) but I had no real idea what it was that I wanted. I was searching for something; I just didn’t know what [...]
• Chloromancer Raid Healing: My Chloromancer Raid healing guide is done! It took some time but that project is now wrapped. You can actually grab your copy by requesting one over there on the right side of the site. I felt it would very confusing to try have two “Chloromancer Healing Guides” hosted on the site. This system I put in place will allow those of you that are interested to grab a copy. If you do decide to get your free copy of my Chloromancer Raid Healing Guide, you will also be on my list for Chloromancer updates. These updates will only be [...]
• It Lives – Kinda: What a week it has been. My last post about fishy computers has been at the top for far too long so I figured I had better write about something. To start things off I have been swamped with anew project that I have taken on and all of my free time is tied up there. Of course I have been playing Rift as I can but I am only really logging in to update auctions and raid. On those two fronts things have been going ok. As far as raiding is concerned the guild has made significant progress in [...]
• Can Chloromancers Heal T2′s?: After yesterdays whining diatribe about having nothing to write about, inspiration struck. As I reread the post an idea sprang forth. I have decided to write about some of the search phrases that turn up in my analytics account. Some of them are very blog relevant and some are strange to say the least. Today’s topic: “Can Chloromancers heal T2′s?” The short answer to that question is “Yes!” But of course if we dissect that question we can see that they are looking for far more that a simple one word answer. Believe it or not this is a pretty [...]
• Won’t Happen A 2nd Time: I just finished reading Khaas’ latest post over at srsbusiness. I must say that as I was reading I was taken aback because the words on the screen sounded as if they came from my finger tips. Each paragraph rang with an eerie echo that resonated more than it should have. In short, he captured the scenario that Black Sunshine had just gone through. I wrote previously of our wayward raid leader who turned out to be a disaster for the guild. What I didn’t share was the ever present discomfort I had with him. From our introduction until our [...]
• Epic Rift Long Weekend: I started my journey on Thursday afternoon, as Friday was a day off for my particular foreigner homestead.  I loaded up with Iron Pine Melange, some Grave Maker Steaks, a few different sets of armor, and changed specs. I chose the one that gave me a pet… he’s still pretty low level, but he’s good for distracting squirrels, and gives me a bonus to cuteness (but only when he is out). My goal was an epic adventure to last the weekend. I started out heading for the Porticulum but found that it was inactive.  I then had to load up [...]
• Blame Me: I am noticing something strange about my guild members frustration over the shard population skyrocketing. Even though I have only experience a queue twice (both on the same night) there are still complaints. Most of the whining has shifted to server lag and other high population issues. So what is “strange” about the complaints? The loudest complainers are the least active in the guild, maybe even the game over all. These are low level players who contribute very little to the guild as a whole and to be honest they have only now decided to make there presence know – [...]
• Chloromancer Healing Guide 1.3: I have updated my Chloromancer Healing Guide for patch 1.3. The new build offers performance comparable to 1.2 but this performance comes at a cost. We have had to sacrifice the survivability we gained by spending more points in the Warlock tree. Now all of those point must be spent in the Chloromancer tree in order to see the comparable numbers. You can see the new version of my guide by clicking the link in the navigation bar above or you can click —> Chloromancer Healing Guide 1.3
• Patiently Waiting: Believe it or not I have had a slew of pre-written articles rendered useless because of patch 1.3. Actually all of the unpublished articles I have written in the last couple of weeks ,, were flushed because of the patch. It sucks because there were some decent ones in the stack and now I can’t use them. The patch brought with it various issues that have had an affect on the blog. The most obvious is the Chlormancer changes. Not so noticeable have been the shard and guild changes forced by the patch. Both of the latter points have had [...]
• Chloromancer Frustrations – 1.3: As most of you are well aware 1.3 completely changed the Chlormancer experience. You can bet your ass my guildies have heard more than their fair share of my whining like a little bitch. I am not happy to say the least. Realistically there is nothing I can do about it so I am going to suck it up and learn to rock Chloro once again. Trion hit Chloros with a monster nerf, pain and simple. I am not sure what drove this but I have a sneaking suspicion it had to do with how effective a good Chloromancer could [...]
• Blogroll Anyone?: I am sure more than one of you is confused by the current state of my posted and personal blogroll. Now that I spend the majority of my time writing about Rift, why am I still reading WoW related blogs? More importantly why are there no Rift related blogs linked there? I think I should start by addressing the WoW blogs I removed from my personal and posted blogrolls in the past few months. Pink Pigtail Inn: Larrisa shuttered the inn awhile back and when that took place, a bright light in a very dim wow blogosphere was extinguished. The [...]
• Back to My Roots: Why is character optimization seen by some as being elitist? Why is the expectation of a performance minimum considered elitist? I am fully aware of and support the I play how I want to play theory of MMO gaming but if you are bad, how does that add up to me being an elitist prick? I have never understood the FailPlayers need to defend poor play and optimization. It has always baffled me how a person could justify, regardless of their performance; that they should get equal consideration for the shinies. I am sorry but that makes no sense to [...]
• Why Bother?: Sometimes I wonder why I am going through all of the headaches I am having with Rift. I mean really, why should I bother? It is only a game after all. With all of the time I have invested in WoW, why should I put up with the hassle of a new game? As far is WoW is concerned I have multiple toons at max level. I have a healthy bank account and jump right back into the auction house game. I feel that my skill level is adequate enough to join any respectable raiding guild, so why am I [...]
• End of an Era: I’m a nostalgic romantic. In more practical terms, I am stubborn and resistant to change. Playing Rift “my way,” I was excited to find a guild and players that supported the “play what you want” philosophy. I listened to the arguments and discussion about cookie cutter builds, but was swinging away merrily knowing that the data miners would never be able to strip mine my glorious Rift. Boy was I naïve. One of the selling points of Rift for me is the adaptability of the soul system. Not only can different classes assume different roles but there is room to [...]
• Playing MMORPG’s Like Me? You Are Doing It Wrong!: I wonder how many people out there play MMORPG’s the way I do. I guess technically you could say that I am doing it wrong but am I the only one? Maybe it is because I started so late into the genre (1 year after WoW launch) that I felt the need to play the way that I do so I could “catch up.” Once I started playing this way it just kind of became my normal, even though I know it is not how the game was intended to be played. I guess I should give you an example [...]
• Somebody Better Duck: Throughout my gaming career I have always liked to believe that I have been the go to person for resolving personnel issues. If there was a problem to be solved, nine times out often I could resolve a situation with everyone’s feelings intact. No fuss no muss. Notice I said nine out often? I did that on purpose. Occasionally something goes haywire and things explode. And believe me brother when they go boom, it is a REALLY BIG FUCKING BOOM. I am talking carnage to likes of entire guilds disintegrating into dust. Of course there has to be tremendous underlying [...]
• Rift Morons: The economy in Rift has been all over the place. The cost of farmed materials can vary widely from day to day. This can cause the cost of crafted goods to fluctuate wildly as well. While I am starting to get a solid grasp of how the market is going to work, occasionally I am hit with something totally unexpected. There are very few regular AH players on Kelpmere. So far the norm seems to be the average Joe/Jane trying their luck in a particular market and then they abandon it when they are undercut with any regularity. It is [...]
• Guild Life – Back On Track: Being vocal and public, I am sure that some feelings will be hurt by this post. Let me apologize in advance if that is the case. I gotta be me and if I pulled any punches now what credibility would I have? I do have to say that the tone of this post is much lighter than I anticipated. Usually THIS is what I am thinking and that is also what I would say. With that said on with the show. Man what a couple of weeks it has been. Who knew that playing a game would be so much [...]
• Stat Priority for Mage Healers: I have gotten a couple of questions about Chloromancer healing from a few guildies and I though it would be good to address these here. While I could answer the questions in our guild forums, I am seeing specific Chloromancer traffic to the blog and I think it would be beneficial to those folks as well. One of the biggest issues I have noticed with new Chloromancers is a misunderstanding of the stat priority. People seem to be confused by their designation as a healer and their actual function of DPS. This is confusing because the Chloromancer achieves the majority [...]
• Where I come from: For my first post, I thought I would provide a brief introduction to my experience and provide my focus for GTFOOTF. I spent most of my time playing EverQuest and World of Warcraft, but also dabbled in Dark Age of Camelot, Planetside, Star Wars Galaxies, The Matrix Online, and Lord of the Rings Online. My more recent forays include Star Trek Online, Fallen Earth and Global Agenda. As Rift is my current game of choice, it will be the main focus of my posts. I fell into the game completely by accident,  but was hooked from day one. That being [...]
• Rift Souls – Play What We Need, Not What You Want?: It should be obvious by now that I fancy myself somewhat of a Chloromancer. With a lot of study, trial and error and practice I feel that I have become what most would consider a competent Mage healer. It certainly did not happen overnight and I still find myself tinkering with things. I think that has to do with me wanting to be the best I can, I am not sure though. With that much time invested you would be correct in assuming that when I raid or do 5mans I want to heal. Also I am a staunch believer [...]
• Chloromancer Changes – Patch 1.2: There are a few changes/tweaks for Chlormancers in the patch. None of them appear to be a game breaker either way. So far the list is rather short but there is a point or two that I felt I should highlight. Nature’s Touch – Nothing much here, just an update to the description. Apparently it was confusing some folks. Lifegiving Veil (LGV) – Fixed an issue with heals from LGV receiving a bonus from the casters Spell Power twice. With Spell Power being so far down on stat priority, this one slipped under my radar. We can’t really consider this [...]
• Rift – Patch 1.2 Live: Exciting News! Trion has decided to add a new weapon to Rift. Okay so this weapon is not exactly new to the MMO genre it is however a fresh addition to Telara. Even as I type this I can hear the masses applaud at its introduction. That’s right Defiant and Guardian players everywhere will soon feel the wrath of the dreaded nerf bat! With the release of 1.2 the Rift developers will be swinging this trusty old MMO standard. The primary target of the devastation will be Expert Dungeons. The developers are calling this action “tuning our Expert Dungeons.” As [...]
• Slivers – Oh How I Long for Thee: In patch 1.2 (rumored to drop on 5/10/11) Telara will be introduced to Slivers, the first of which is Gilded Prophecy. For those of you unaware, Slivers are the 10 man raids coming to Rift. Trion has decided to make lOman raiding viable in Rift, /applause At this time there is limited information out there about Slivers, but I am sure more will be made available as we get closer to release. Here is what we know so far. It will cost 25,000 planarite (one time cost) to gain the ascended power Omen ‘ Sight (Guardian) or Quantum Sight (Defiant). [...]
• Chloromancer Healing: I bumped into Chloromancer healing by accident. When I was building my souls I was primarily interested in the ability to self heal while doing dps. It started as a means to an end while leveling; soon it turned out to be more than that. Eventually it became a challenge. The challenge was unknowingly given to my by my guildies as well as the general server population. Daily I was bombarded with the perceived limitations of Chloromancer healing. Groups complained that Chloromancers can’t main heal and that was the primary cause of their frustrating runs. As all of this went [...]
• The Time Has Come: It is time for me to take ownership. Rift is now my MMO of choice. This is not a declaration that I will never return to WoW, more like I am taking an official break from WoW. Today I cancelled my WoW subscription as I haven’t logged in the past 30days. It was a waste of money for me to let the subscription continue. There are a couple of things that have gotten me to this point and I think both of them are equally interesting. The first of the two was “game defense.” Recently I have found myself mentally [...]
• Rift Experts – Not As Bad As They Sound: Over the weekend I was able to jump into a couple of expert runs in Rift. For those of you who are unaware, expert dungeons are equivalent to heroics in WoW. Prior to getting to max level, I had heard a lot of horror stories of four hour runs and endless wipes. To be quite frank I was a bit hesitant to run one. As some of you may have read, I diagnosed some of these wipe fests by just listening to the mumble chatter. Far be it for me to brag but I was right. Nearly everything I thought [...]
• We Need Better Gear!: I have finally reached the level cap in Rift. I hit level 50 early Sunday morning, and my accomplishment was greeted with many cries of “It’s about time.” It would appear that my restrained approach to leveling was not appreciated by those who got there before me! It was also evident that more than a few members felt somewhat gimped by having a GM who was lower level than they are. Because I have gone a bit slower than some of the others, I have not been involved in the first expert runs that the guild undertook last week. Even [...]
• My Eyes Have Been Opened: Astonishingly enough I just realized why I enjoy healing as a chloromancer. It is because I actually get to see the majority of most fights. As a healing mage, I don’t have to spend the entire fight staring at health bars. Sure I have to keep an occasional eye on them, but I am not glued to them as before. Not being tied to the health bars allows me to actually feel like I am participating in the fight. I know that may sound strange and it is a bit difficult to explain, but I believe most healers will understand [...]
• Rift – Hotfixes, Patches and Ding – Oh My!: The Rift developers continue to tweak and fine tune their product at an incredible rate. They are consistently addressing the minor issues that can plague a newly released game. As things stand now they can deftly maneuver through hotfixes and updates. If the game is able to grow, I am hopeful that they will be able to continue this level of service. One of the more frustrating issues in the past month was directly tied to the guild leveling process. It was tied to the guild quest that requires members to close a specified number of rifts and kill and [...]
• You Want To Know More About What?: A couple of days ago in-game I was asked about my healing role. The conversation started with some simple questions about my chosen souls and some of the talents therein. Then something strange happened, it became more than a simple conversation, it turned into kind of a mini class on Chloromancer healing for three guildies. By now my readers know that I have never claimed to be the best at anything remotely game related. I also try and maintain my humility at all times. No matter how good I am at something I know there is always someone better out [...]