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Character Alts in Rift (A partial cure for alt-itis or does it just make it worse?)
GameMonger71
Member UncommonPosts: 122
I have been known to have a small alt-itis isuues at time in MMOs 
. Anyway, it seems to me that in Rift, I really only need to have one each: fighter, mage, cleric, and rogue and then just fiddle around with souls under those builds until I am happy (vice starting over or having 12 characters spread over 2 servers). I know I have to pay to assign a set of roles (soul trios if you will) and that it costs gold to retrain skills, but are those the only limitations? Do I have to re-earn experience if I de-skill in something or is it just money?
I am generally asking something along the following lines:
Say I start with a Ranger/Nightblade/Assassin can I either buy a new role (or just pay to retrain in order to not spread my skill poinst too thin) and make him a Assassin/Nightblade/Bladedancer for instance if I find that more to my playstyle? How many souls can I have all together (I know I can only have 3 active at a time, but how many all together)? Sorry for all the very basic questions.
Thanks!
Comments
You can have 4 roles per character,each with 3 souls. You can distribute points in any way you want in each role.
To reset your souls of any ONE role costs 50 gold. Let's say you're level 50 and you've bought all the upgraded skills for a given soul, and then you reset the role that soul is in. If you use the same soul as part of your new build, you DO NOT have to re-purchase the skill upgrades. Likewise, if you buy another role altogether (each role past the first costs some money), and you use a soul you already have purchased upgraded skills for, you do not have to re-purchase those upgrades.
I know some people who have multiple roles with the same exact souls in them, they just spread the points differently. They might use chloromancer/archon/elmentalist, as an example, for off-healing. Then they might have a chloro-archon main healer role as well.
To your original question: you will never need more than 4 characters in RIFT unless you choose to play on a different server. Each character of each calling (calling = class) can learn all souls of that calling (8 souls per calling plus 1 pvp soul per calling = 9 total souls), which can then be used to build your roles however you see fit.
No godless person can comprehend those minute distinctions
in doctrine that provide true believers excuse for mayhem.
-Glen Cook
You start with 1 role per archtype meaning 3 souls, then after lvl i thinks 15 you can do a soul quest for every other soul in the archtype.
Yyou will need to do pvp to unlock the pvp soul
after that you have 1 role selected out of the 8 souls you can select from.
If you then buy a new role at the trainer, you can then set up a new role dat is select a group of 3 souls that you can then save so you can switch between the roles (premade selection of 3 souls).
Right now i think you can have 4 roles saves so that is 4 versions of your char most only need 3.
So for a warrior alt of myn i have :
1. sword and board role
2. 2 Hweapon role
3. dual wield role
but you can also preconfiger dps / healer / tank.
"Believe nothing.
No matter where you read it,
Or who said it,
Even if I have said it,
Unless it agrees with your own reason
And your own common sense"
- The Buddha, from Dhammapada
As you said, you start off with the 3 souls you get at the beginning. When you get to your first big city, you get quests to go and get the rest of the souls(total of 6 per archetype i think) You can then have any of those souls assigned.
You can reset the skill points for your current build at any time by visiting a profession trainer - you have to reassign all your skill points.
You can also purchase additional roles(total of 4) which allow you to have another build of 3 souls saved. You can spend all of the skill points you have earned in each build at the same time, but can only have 1 active. This saves all your skill points and also skill placement on your hotbars, but not gear.
Hope that helps
Cluck Cluck, Gibber Gibber, My Old Mans A Mushroom
It really depends on whether you like having alts (that are all different) or if you see it as a problem to be fixed. I like having lots of alts. Rift ruins that for me, because having any more than 4 would be pointless
Even those 4 can handle similar roles, so one might say you really only "need" one or two. Why have a rogue and a tank, when you can have a tank that can alternate between tanking and DPSing. Why have a cleric and a mage, when you can have a cleric who can alternate between tanking, healing, and range DPSing.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
I really want to like RIFT, but here's my problem: I started a Rogue, got to lvl 28. Got a little bored. Thought I might try A Cleric. Really liked him. Got to level 16. Got a little bored. Thought I'd try a mage. REALLY liked him. Got to level 10. Got REALLY bored...See where this is going?
My suggestion would be to decide first off what type of "calling" suits you then stick with it till the end...
Just my humble opinion, of course...
Rift makes doing alts very discouraging. The quests the 1st time around are boring enough.
Translation: Someone who doesn't like questing will also not like it here. If anything, the quests here are slightly better with a bit more variety than normal for western fantasy MMOs.
But back to the original topic... Rift creates a different form of altitis but it certainly won't cure you if you're afflicted: level just 4 characters--which is relatively easy to do--and you have access to all the souls and each character gives you 4 roles (i,e specs) some of which can be drastically different from other roles for the same character. For example, as a Cleric you can tank, melee DPS, ranged DPS or choose one of 3 healing specialties. Rogues can be ranged or melee and also have one of the best tank specs. And so on...
Then there is tweaking specific roles by combining 3 different souls in different proportions. For example you have umpteen possible Mage PvE DPS combos with many of them having DPS parses of relatively equal value...some with better burst potential, some better at single target and some better at AOE.
It's an altaholic and tweakaholic's paradise
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
First, the Soul system isn't a good cure for Altaholism. Sure, you can now have many different builds in one character, but most alt-a-holics play alts as an alternative to end game grinds and because they prefer level progression and questing/exploring. It cuts down on making alts because you don't like the way a particular build plays, but that's usually a short term issue and not a cause alt creation over months in a title.
Second, there is no redundancy in level paths in the game. One path for each faction, plus much of each path is in shared zones, so even though switching factions will get you different quests and have you playing mostly in the other half of the zone, you've still seen all these zones before.
So, yeah, it eases alt creation just because you get to a certain level and just don't like the way a character plays, but true alt-a-holics, for whom alts greatly extend their months playing a game, Rift offers very, very little.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
Well, I can certainly see that as one of the reasons for creating alts but there are others.
I create alts in MMOs mostly because I want to experience the content--mostly instances and PvP--with a different play style. That's most of the fun for me.
The other reason I've done it (in games like WOW for example) was to experience significantly re-designed lower level content.
I don't prefer level progression. To me that's just for learning to play the new style. And although I do enjoy the learning process, it's still the end-game using this new "role" I have in mind when I create an alt.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
OK. Change "Most" to "Many". My Bad. Rift is good if you want to experience End Game with different playstyles. Level four toons to 50 and you now have access to every single end game build available. It doesn't negate the fact that leveling alts in Rift is a lot less fun than in games where there are multiple paths you can take while leveling and World content provides a lot of replay value on it's own.
I still have to think that the number of alt-a-holics who complete maximum end game progressions on numerous characters is a very, very small percentage of all people who play MMORPGs and denotes a level of masochism I personally can't comprehend! That may just be me though.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
