Rift: Ding 70!

Earlier this week I hit the new cap of 70 in Rift. It has been quite an enjoyable expansion so far. There have been a few hiccups, but for the most part it has been a great expansion to hop into and just go. Very classic MMO, no prerequisite content needed. No weird stats you need as you level on gear you don't have. The upgrades you get as you go are sufficient and with the right spec things start ramping up as you progress to the cap. Legendary abilities start to shine and I really like these!



I have to say this is the most I have enjoyed a Rift expansion in quite some time. I did like Storm Legion well enough, it was a very vast and beautiful expansion. I even go back and putter around there because I liked it so much. Nightmare Tide, just something about all that water. Too much water did not mesh with me, but it was beautiful too. Starfall Prophecy is absolutely gorgeous, even if quite smaller than the others, it really resonated with me. I don't feel left behind or lost. Level 67 started slowing down on mob kill speed and then 68 started slogging when the mobs started to have hit-points at around a million each. Then at 69 things sped back up and at 70 things are coasting along very smoothly. If you are still trying to get through the levels just find a solid build to solo with and stuck with it. It gets better!

As for the hiccups there have been a few quests, main story quests, that have been bugged, but I managed to get around them. There have been some DDOS attacks as well, but the Rift team has put some things in place to keep the servers up and running through these. I had no clue until I read this on the forums! And... there has been some downtime. However, through all of this I feel the team has touched base with the players, with forum posts, announcements in game as well as giving out some things for our troubles. Patrons get five days added to accounts and everyone gets 100 affinity to claim once. I appreciate it all, greatly.

I don't raid or group very much but there is still plenty to do. I love the new Planer Assault Instant Adventure. It is basically a zone where you just chase Rifts and different objectives with a large 'raid' group. It is similar to IA's but seems faster paced. I remember the excitement of running around with the pack doing Rifts back in the early days. This has a similar feeling. You can run these to get tons of fragments (think sockets that don't need to be put into gear but have their own slots), you may not get the ones you want right away but there is always the option to keep at it. This is what makes Rift shine, in my eyes, the options to do all these different activities, still feeling like you are joining in but at the pace you want.

There is still a whole level 70 zone to be added, I can't wait for that. I am so curious to see it. Christmas is heading upon us soon and so will the holiday event which is always pretty fun with lots of stuff to collect. I have plenty to keep me busy with so far, collecting herbs and ores which sell quite well at the moment. I have been making decent money on a steady basis which has been great.

There are a few new dimensions out and I already grabbed one, the top pic of this post is the new Khort dimension, it is really nice and I am having fun decorating it. I still need some more stuff from factions so I keep at my daily quests trying to max them out to get some cool stuff to start adding into my dims.

All in all I have to say it has been refreshing and I am glad I jumped back in and played the expansion. As compared to the other Expansions I played this year, it is my favorite.  Legion which I played through to the new cap and did enjoy, had tons of cool stuff to do-- but it still felt aimed towards the same old boring way of trying to funnel me into things I didn't feel like doing. And Kunark Ascending was not what I thought it would be, not at all. I'm here for the fun stuff, not headaches. Plenty to look forward to in Rift though, I have a positive outlook on the future and hope the team keeps heading with this direction they are going in, it has been quite an enjoyable adventure thus far.

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!