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So after a nice month and a half break, I've resubbed
That's right. I hit 50 on my mage in about a month and half from launch. Got enough gear to see Tier 2 dungeons and the first part of the River of Souls raid and then I was burnt out. Unsubbed and went back to WoW for a bit. I had been itching to take a goblin warlock to 85, so I did. Had a blast leveling, got to 85 and found myself annoyed with the waiting on people in raids, running heroics over and over ad nauseum. Since I've been playing WoW since it's launch, I chock this up to plain old WoW burnout, so I unsubbed last week.
Decided to try out Rift again, see what has changed and approach the game from a different angle. This time around, I chose to play rogue, but for pure support in a group. So Bard was my choice this time around(although I have picked up Ranger as my second role in order to facilitate solo questing in a more efficient fashion). I've also decided to not even look at my level or xp and just do everything in each zone as completely as I can.
From completing all quests, achievements, dungeons and rift hunting, my time in each zone is increased but my enjoyment also increases. I'm having a blast.
To sum it up, I think sometimes certain "other" games have taught us to rush rush rush to endgame and we tend to overlook a vast amount of content on the way that is very fun to do. Rift, fortunately, offers a TON of content on the way to 50. Granted, endgame needs more to do, like housing or RVR or alternate advancement, but hopefully that's coming soon and at the rate I'm going, I'm not worried about that just yet.
So, anyway, just thought I would share, as sometimes, it's our own perceptions and "habits" that we bring into these games that can make or break them. Currently I'm playing on Briarcliff, but next week I'm open to transferring anywhere that I can do these things with like minded indivuals.
Comments
Don't leave Briarcliff, I'm on that server and want people to play with. What faction are you playing?
Originally posted by GTwander:
How are you an MMO? Or any of us for that matter?
I say we strike all users from the site for not being MMOs.
Defiant. My first stint with my mage, which I will be moving off of Shadefallen come the 22nd, was as a guardian. This time around I'm enjoying the other side of the fence with my Kilari rogue.
That is exactly how I approached leveling in Rift, and I have had tons of fun playing the game. They key I think is that the pressure to get to the next best thing is gone, and I am concentrating on story and exploration rather than chasing a linear carrot on a stick. Granted, I am now was behind the curve with regard to endgame and have undoubtedly found it more difficult to find groupd for the lower tiers of instanced group content. So it's a trade-off. Yeah i could have raced to 50 in a couple of days and be at the top tier of raid content right now, but I am really tired of that paradigm.
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"Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places..." ~ H.P.Lovecraft, "From Beyond"
Member Since March 2004
That's cool I have both a defiant and guardian on that server. I kind of did what you did but to a lesser extent. I've always played healers in games because, well they're needed and it guarantees fast grouping. But after leveling a cleric to 19 I realized I wasn't having fun in pvp or pve. So I switched to a mage (necromancer spec) and even though there's probably too many necromancers I'm having a blast now. I still haven't made it to endgame so I can't speak for the feeling of endgame apathy, but I've certainly experienced that in WoW.
Originally posted by GTwander:
How are you an MMO? Or any of us for that matter?
I say we strike all users from the site for not being MMOs.
Meh, endgame is same same same in every themepark MMOG at it's core, but it's more the tiring, non-stop race to keep logging in to raid, do dailies and generally keep up with the Joneses that I find exhausting and just really not that fun anymore. The main problem i see is that when you take your time and try and have fun with the game and not race to the cap in pursuit of end game content, you end up having a rough time finding enough interest to get into it when you're "late" to the party... I guess what I am saying is that, while I may still want to experience the end game content, I really don't want to fell rushed and not enjoy myself playing in order to do so. I've done it in other MMOGs for years, and it gets really tiring.
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"Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places..." ~ H.P.Lovecraft, "From Beyond"
Member Since March 2004
Ah, the endgame dilemma. It's not like we don't have previous MMORPGs setting some nice precedents for alternative endgame activity. These same games still have very active playerbases as well: Asheron's Call, Everquest, Eve, Final Fantasy XI and I'm sure a few others all have great alternative gameplay other than gear hunting in dungeons and raids. Why they aren't copied is beyond me. I'd rather see newer games take those same ideas and expand upon them.
So yeah, I just finished up all the major achievements in Freemarch except the Rift, Rare Mob and Artifact ones(those are just easier to do when you are on a faster mount and higher level, hehe). I've moved on into Stonefield now and am happily taking my time. Now to find some help with that first group quest to kill those Giants.
Yeah i remember how fondly you talked about Rift during launch.. then a bout month later you were completley oppisite lol.. I figured you just rushed through the content and had missed out as so many others had.. I'am glad to hear that you're taking you're time with it now.. I jus' hit my 4 month and i jus' hit 50 yesterday.. I play about 2hrs each day.. I never rushed through anything and i did a little bit of everything.. With that said I've gotten immense enjoyment out of RIft.. Today i did my first t1 and had a blast.. I can't wait till i get into Raids and stuff..
It's all about taking you're time and soaking in the game world man.. Hopefully you'll stick with that mentality this time through.
Currently Playing:
Rift + Starcraft II + Gears Of War 3 Beta
Plus...I was in a fairly good guild that was very heavily focused on getting to Raiding ASAP and for someone like me, who dabbles in raiding, it probably wasn't a good fit and I felt rushed and then left behind when they all kept running tier 2s and so forth. So sometimes, guilds may have good people but sometimes their agenda isn't always a good fit either. Hopefully I can find a guild that does what I do, while still wanting to raid but it isn't the ONLY focus.
Although I am on a different server welcome back to the game. I agree that the mentality of rushing ruins the game experience. I rush with my main and now actually just enjoying everything I missed through rushing. The hard thing to remember about this game is it isn't very old but has quite a bit to do. I am still learning at the game and with other games there were so few elements that it was quick to figure everything out.
Juegos de Lucha-Free online games
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Juego De Guerra
Rift Universe
Probably a good time to re-sub. Although for me, after nearly 3 months the game has started to get stale. Thankfully there is a new event patch coming next week, looks like there could be perhaps another month or so's worth of content (for the non-raider).
I'm thinking this game will, with a bit more attention to detail get better with time. There really does need to be more end level stuff to do other than raiding and pvp.
I don't say that to pressure you but if you just did your first T1 today after four months, everyone else is mostly decked in T2. People usually don't like pulling others through dungeons to get them geared out and caught up.
When Hammerknell drops (pun!), all the T2 people will be working on that with no desire to go backwards and raid old content like Greenscale, which they are currently tired of.
So even though you say you aren't in a hurry but at the same time say you can't wait til your first raid, you're going to have to move a bit faster or it will be like in WoW when everyone did all the old dungeons and then you couldn't get anyone to run them because the gear wasn't worth it.
"TO MICHAEL!"
I tried to approach Rift like OP did but i find Rift to not have very big zones or very many secrets (like hidden dungeons etc.) to keep me interested on the exploration front so i just hopped from zone to zone to try and stop teh boredom. And the zones just felt contrived......maybe i am just spoiled as im playing Oblivion and FO3 which both have amazing exploration potential so exploring every inch of them is fun as you have no idea what is around the next corner. Unfortunently Rift is so contrived you know exactly what i saround the next corner
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Playing: PO, EVE
Waiting for: WoD
Favourite MMOs: VG, EVE, FE and DDO
Any person who expresses rage and loathing for an MMO is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.
why don't both of you leave briarcliff and play on FIRESAND! [ordo solis et lunae are cool bunch of dudes (and dudettes)].
Yeah that's one thing I don't like about Rift... there's no real incentive to go of the beaten path. Just following the linear quest line and doing every dungeon at least once, will give you all the xp & gear you need to reach max. Also exploring zones just doesn't give much in terms of rewards (only artifacts & some minor puzzle rewards). Heck, on my Defiant playthrough I didn't even touch the southern zones & some of the northern ones I only ventured in to gank some lowbie Guardians. I just basically needed to quest in 1 zone per 10 level bracket.
So I can't wait for Guild Wars 2; where the very nature of its dynamic events, does everything to promote exploration.
Was the exact same way, returned and am having a great time again.
I just started playing for my first time. I'm a 24 Defiant Cleric on Deepstrike. Right now I've been playing with a friend who is a tank and I heal so we get insta dungeon queues and doing rifts and quests are a breeze. Its pretty fun for us, I'm trying to take my time by distracting myself with other games. I'm also making an effort to not research all about the game and leave a lot of things up to discovery. I think thats what normally kills mmos and causes me to rush.
But I'm glad you are enjoying it again, I hope we both can get many more hours out of Rift!
The approach you've just discovered to be fun is the same approach I took when the game released. The difference is that I didn't enjoy the shallow story and I hate quest grinding because of the shallowness of the stories. So I burnt out in less than two weeks. I did enjoy the dungeons though, and RIFTs/Invasions were fun the first several times, but they got boring fast.
So RIFT may be a fine themepark game if you're not burnt out on them, but personally I cannot stomach it anymore. When I hear about a new MMORPG coming out, the first thing I look for now is if the main source of leveling comes from quest hub grinding. If it does, I don't even read any further. Hopefully SWTOR is successful with adding good story and choice to questing, so that future developers focus more on it. I don't mind quests when backed by a really good story that enthrals me, but I don't have the stomach for poorely written chores and tasks that the developers call quests.
Welcome back to the game. I definitely agree that rushing towards the end game makes a game pretty boring. Low level pvp is a lot of fun. I have more fun running around with a partner fighting other similiar level players rather than sitting and waiting on a WF on my 50. >.<
C'mon man.. I've taken 4 months to hit lvl 50, most do it under a month.. Does it look like i'm trying THAT hard to do rush through the content? My guild consist of 500+ players, around 100+ online at all times.. We have no problems getting raids together and isntances.. And they don't mind dragging me through them either.. They've been showing me the ropes on t1's even though most of then are doing t2's and raids..
I dispise that perfectionist attitude and am really glad i got a guild that dosn't mind helping it's members out.. We still group up for invasions and stuff frequently.. And that's what its all about, it's not about spending hours upon hours grinding the same instances over and over to get to raiding.. I mean, it could be about that, but when I play games like that i tend to get burned out quick with them.. Even right now im playing Starcraft 2 + BFBC2 + Rift all at once so each one dosn't get boring to me.. To each their own though, all i know is im having a good time even w/o the raids ^_^
Currently Playing:
Rift + Starcraft II + Gears Of War 3 Beta
If you have any plans on going to Hammerknell, you're going to have to step it up a bit.
I don't say that to pressure you but if you just did your first T1 today after four months, everyone else is mostly decked in T2. People usually don't like pulling others through dungeons to get them geared out and caught up.
When Hammerknell drops (pun!), all the T2 people will be working on that with no desire to go backwards and raid old content like Greenscale, which they are currently tired of.
So even though you say you aren't in a hurry but at the same time say you can't wait til your first raid, you're going to have to move a bit faster or it will be like in WoW when everyone did all the old dungeons and then you couldn't get anyone to run them because the gear wasn't worth it.
C'mon man.. I've taken 4 months to hit lvl 50, most do it under a month.. Does it look like i'm trying THAT hard to do rush through the content? My guild consist of 500+ players, around 100+ online at all times.. We have no problems getting raids together and isntances.. And they don't mind dragging me through them either.. They've been showing me the ropes on t1's even though most of then are doing t2's and raids..
I dispise that perfectionist attitude and am really glad i got a guild that dosn't mind helping it's members out.. We still group up for invasions and stuff frequently.. And that's what its all about, it's not about spending hours upon hours grinding the same instances over and over to get to raiding.. I mean, it could be about that, but when I play games like that i tend to get burned out quick with them.. Even right now im playing Starcraft 2 + BFBC2 + Rift all at once so each one dosn't get boring to me.. To each their own though, all i know is im having a good time even w/o the raids ^_^
Oh, well as long as you have a good guild willing to pull you through the older stuff so that you can get geared, that's not a problem.
That advice about people taking their time after four months and now deciding to get into raids is more for the casual without good or highly populated guilds, and there are tons of those right now. Usually people who bop around as you do are in those types of guilds/non guild modes because guilds move too fast.
Or they are on dying servers where higher guilds don't raid much at all now because all their 50s are raid geared and bored of it, go offline until Hammerknell; logging in only for dailys or craft rifts.
While Rift is a good game from 1-50, the end is ALL about raiding and hitting T1 dungeons so that you can get geared for T2 dungeons so that you can get geared for Greenscale and RoS.
Hammerknell is going to be a tougher raid than both of those so that's why it's important for anyone thinking of raiding at all, to get a move on.
"TO MICHAEL!"
Hi Elocke. I'm playing on Faeblight which is an RP-PvE server. I eventually found a guild called the Elders and its a grand fit.
I'm very casual. Just got to level 46 on my main. But I dare say in a month or so I'll be dabbling in a raid or two.
I think a lot of MMO players "enjoy" their games by rushing through, for them it is more about the "competition" with other players to be efficient, get the awesome DPS numbers, beat the harder content. That's fine. Really, people ought to play however they damn want.
Having said that, the "efficient" approach is the best way to burn out and you see loads of posts here where it is pretty obvious that's the case.
Something else I've noticed. In taking my time in exploring every nook and cranny and quest and puzzle per zone as I level, I'm actually leveling REALLY fast compared to my first character who just quested non stop to endcap. On that toon, I had leveling walls where I was stuck trying to find quests etc and just ran warfronts or dungeons to get over the hump. On my newer toon, I'm like 2 to 3 levels if not more above the curve and I JUST now entered my third zone.
So I finished Freemarch and then Stonefield and am sitting a few bars away from level 30 with tons of titles and achieves done and 2 level 30 sacks waiting to be opened to give me some nice gear(from the puzzles and cairns in Stonefield). I'm still having a blast too. Ooh, that reminds me, I need to run Deepstrike Mines I think one more time, maybe 2 to max out my rep for the Stonefield faction(forget the name). This way I don't have to worry about lower zone rep at endgame too and can focus on the tougher rep at 50 for Stillmoor and so forth.
Yeah, this agrees with my opinion that if you burn through the leveling process, you can easily burn out on the game. I am still enjoying my characters quite a bit. I did rotate leveling them up with collecting, crafting, and lots of pvp / rifts.
Leveling alts in any game always is faster than the first toon because there are many other things you did the first time around you take for granted or already know the second time.
Example: I'm sure you set your UI up the same way you like it from before all over again, but this time since you know where everything goes and how it works, less time doing that, more time fighting. Even though quests are different in writing, they are basically the same style.
You don't have to figure out skills as much either even if you are playing a different type of class. Once you understand reactives, macros and cast times and how they work in the game, it's basically like that for every class. If it's a melee, the points you get are exactly like WoW spent points for combat.
You don't have to figure out how souls work this time around, so you don't have to fumble with ineffient ones.
You know where all the main cities are already, you know generally where all the quests hubs are, and you know what mobs do what when attacking, how far they chase, how fast they respawn, tons of things.
As they say, nothing like experience.. which is why I'll never reroll another toon in Rift. Once you've done it once, it's the same especially when you share zones with each side.
"TO MICHAEL!"
I should say, I'm leveling at the same space, but the questing and zone pace is slower. Meaning before I was at level 30 after a week and already had 5 zones under my belt. Now I'm level 30 after a week with just 2 zones under my belt, but those zones are 95% complete(artifacts will take forever, and seem to be a better endgame persuit anyway).
But yeah, some things I know better now, like agro ranges and how to find vendors and how my UI is setup. Still, I'm a major MMO Vet, you name it I've played it, so I already have a working knowledge of how the game is going to be before I even step foot in it. I'm just really hoping, that I don't get uber bored again at endgame, as...well Rift is making the mistake of adding Raiding ONLY right now. I don't mind raiding if there are other things to do as well. EQ2 is a good example of a game with Raiding and quite a bit of alternative gameplay from housing to collections to alternate advancement points. But, I do like Trion and will keep my eye on the game, if I happen to get so bored I unsub again in a month or so.