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=/ So many choices *spins
Hey peeps ^ ^
I'm taking advantage of the free rift weekend and instead of being excited about it I find myself here spinning. Spinning because I'm overwhelmed by all the classes. I have no clue how to even narrow them down. Thru my mmo years Ive mainly always been into pvp, playing either a mage, shadow priest (shhhh) rogue. With it taking so long to level up a character it concerns me that after finally hitting that 50 mark I'll figure out that I totally went down the wrong path (with job,family,work = casual). What I'd like to know from all of you is how did you narrow all this madness down with so many awesome choices? I appreciate your thoughts !
Comments
The souls within a tree can be switched at will and you have multiple builds ready for a 'click'. Figure out what archetype you like: Warrior, Mage, Cleric or Rogue and that will give you the starting point you need. Don't worry so much about soul builds until you are up in levels.
This game is nice in the idea that if you don't like the soul you picked you can change it without deleting your character.
I picked mage as my first character. Picked stormcaller as my first soul, then you pick 2 more, I forget what they were. You are basically locked with these souls up to about level 13, where you can then go grab quests to unlock the rest of the souls. By this time you also have enough money to purchase your second role, maybe even your third. Once you have all of these unlocked, which I did by level 15, you can now mess with builds and find the one that "fits" you. I ended up changing to necro/warlock for leveling purposes and never looked back. Now at 50 I've finally come full circle and have a nice Stormcaller build for dungeons and pvp.
The soul system is where the game is very addictive, well that and artifact collecting, but that's another topic. Basically just focus on getting to the mid teens and unlock those souls and roles and have a blast putting points in different builds.
I think you'll be satisfied regardless of your choice.
In beta I played a Rogue to about level 25 and a mage to level 14. (Both Defiant)
In retail I started a Warrior (who is only level 32 sadly, because of your same concerns, Job, Family) and a Cleric who is level 22. Again, both defiant.
I've liked all the classes so far, and since there is so much variability in each class with the souls, you can find a build that suits you no matter what.
I really enjoyed the Rogue but didn't want to play those levels again immediately and went to Warrior. I can't pick which class was more fun, because the game is just FUN in general.
You can play a rogue that Tanks, Support/Heals, Melee DPS, AoE control/DPS or Range DPS
You can play a cleric that Tanks, Single Target Heals, AoE Heals, Melee DPS or Range DPS
You can play a warrior that Tanks, Supports, Melee DPS or Range DPS
You can play a mage that Heals, Pet Off-Tanks, Range DPS (not real up on the mages honestly)
And you can change these settings at any time, so really, I'd reccomend to pick a class that has the various "Roles" you like to play and give it a whirl. If you want, Make a Sneaky, Backstabbing rogue that you later change to a ranged healer /support that you later change to a range dps / pet handler, that you later change to a melee/Tank that you later change to a ranged AoE... or combinations of each, however / whenever you want!
The benefit is, you only need to choose 1 archetype first, and a few souls to start, and by level 13, you'll be Questing for the other souls and changing things up. Not a bad deal! That's the beauty of this structure, you don't really ever get pigeon-holed into anything!
Once you hit level 15 or so, you can unlock every other soul. All you do is get the quest from the relevant NPC, close a rift and summon a mob and kill it. Rinse and repeat until you have obtained every soul. Then, as others have said, you can mix and match them to your hearts content until you find a build you like.
If you're going for a shadow priest type, then mage would be a good choice. They wear cloth and the chloromancer soul adds some group healing capability while maintaining decent dps.
Thanks for all of your "put thought into posts". It's refreshing to know at level 50 your not pigeon - holed like SvenDryden was saying into just one tree/class/calling or what ever they are calling it . ^ ^ I have it narrowed down to mage or rogue - It will probably come down to the create char screen before I decide ! LOL Also - its very refreshing to talk about something in the forums w/o getting flamed too. Hope the "in game" Rift community is like all of you ! Thanks again !!
you got choice of only 4 to make and from there you can decide how you want to make your toon.
by switching souls you can be be get 2/3 or 3/3 depending on class tank,dps,healer.
how good you can be in that is room for another discussion about class balance.
Every archetype has different numbers of healing, dps, support and tank souls. Clerics, for example, have more healing soul options open to them than Mages do (only one for the Mage).
You have up to 4 role slots available per character, with each subsequent one after your second costing more money. So even with one character, you can't have all soul combinations, but you can have a PvP spec, a dungeon spec, a raid spec, etc. Or you can just experiment: whatever strikes your fancy.
You can also respec your soul setups, so if you want to try different builds in each role you can. There is a ton of flexibility in how you build your character in this game.
Playing MUDs and MMOs since 1994.
I'll try and answer from the perspective the OP started this conversation. Which is not what you'll eventually have over the pass of (small) amount of time, but how to pick a soul combination at the beginning out of the overwhelming amount of choices.
So here it goes:
First of all pick a calling you like. Warriors do battle with building points and finishers, also use reactive abilities depending on souls. Rogues build combo points and rely on energy build up. Mages and clerics rely on mana and cooldowns.
Then pick a dps soul. You may want to tank end game or when next you'll group, but since you'll be mostly soloing up to leaving the tutorial area you should probably stick with a fast levelling soul.
The second soul choice should also be a dps soul, preferably something that complements the first one. The suggested souls are a decent first indication.
The third soul choice will open once you finish the tutorial. For this, you don't have to follow the recommended, but you can and should pick an alternative play style choice. So if you plan on doing a bit of healing pick a healing soul, or if you like a bit of tanking pick a tanking soul.
Great, now you're off the tutorial area. You have two dps souls and one that is meant for non dps group gameplay.
When you have enough gold to buy all your skill upgrades and still got 30g to spare, it's time to buy your second role. Keep in mind that you'll need a bit of gold to upgrade your non-dps skills as well.
Setup one role for dps and one role of non-dps gameplay and distribute your points accordingly. Don't forget to experiment with re-talenting, at the beginning it's free.
Put the role changing buttons in your hotbars for easy access. Press P to open the ability menu, go to roles to find the buttons, drag them to your action bar.
By now you have two roles set up, one for dps solo levelling and one for alternative gameplay when grouped.
At level 13 you can visit your side's capital hub (Sanctum or Meridian) and grab soul quests for the remaining souls. You will be offered one soul quest at a time, so don't worry if you can't find a specific soul quest if you already have a soul quest in your quest log.
By level 15 you should have all 8 PvE souls available to your character.
Have fun experimenting. Your first group instanced is suggested at level 17.