Hello again, Internets. It’s been too long. I don’t like to go too far into personal details on this blog, so suffice it to say that this last month has been personally trying. I’m hoping things may settle soon, but summer is coming up and I’ll be taking a summer job until next school year. In the meantime, I’d subscribe with your RSS reader of choice, just to stay clicked in – GBN is going nowhere, I can promise you that.
With that out of the way, have you guys checked out RIFT’s latest patch? I’m having a great time with it, so much so that I almost feel like I’m playing a fresh game. There was a palpable excitement coursing through Immortal Council’s guild chat. We tried out just about everything, and I played more than I’ve played in the last two weeks.
Out of all the great things this patch brought – and, boy, did it bring a lot – my personal favorite was just a tiny bulletpoint on a large list: abilities now execute more quickly after auto-attack. It seems small, but that little alteration really speeds up the pace of combat on my cleric. It reminds me a LOT of the combat changes LotRO received accomplishing the same thing. Everything seems snappier. I’ve yet to run a parser, but I’d be willing to bet my DPS would be up because of it. As much as people hate to hear the comparison, pacing is on par with World of Warcraft now.
On top of that, the Inquisitor soul got some much needed touch ups that really increase survivability. I feel much less like a glass cannon without being overpowered. I’m excited to see how I do in PvP with my healing build.
Apart from individual changes to my souls or how I play, I got the chance to try out the LFG tool. I predict it goes cross-server within a month. It works perfectly fine but the wait times are more than most people will be comfortable. On Sunrest, one of the higher-pop servers, I didn’t get a single dungeon pop when I queued for DPS – even over the course of 90 minutes or so. Tank was a little better, but I was still waiting 20 minutes or so. Honestly, I would much prefer it be left as is for the sake of server community, but people are already ignoring the queue in favor of channel spam.
Another way the game got a little closer to LotRO is with the wardrobe system. It’s nice and just cosmetic, but it seems some people were expecting a full “click to change sets” button. Those are nice, but I’m happy just to be able to change out my look. I do wish they’d change a couple of things, though. For example, dyes don’t carry through to your wardrobe slot. So, if you move a whole set over, you’ll need to re-dye everything. Also, I kind of wish you could equip armor-types below what your class usually uses. I don’t understand why I can equip cloth items but not put them in my cosmetic slots.
Some people might be upset about T2s being nerfed down, but I think we need to keep in mind that many of things required 2-3+ hours to finish with minimal wiping and required two healers. With the rate they’re adding endgame, and Hammerknell coming soon with its own plethora of bosses, I think it’s appropriate to get people through their 5-mans a little quicker.
Overall, I think this patch did a whole lot to advance the game. I had a great time last night and even stayed up late on a work night to scratch my way to 41. I’m starting to feel really behind (I know, I am) everyone else in my guild, so that fire is burning under my butt. It’s nice to see so many people having fun and re-igniting their passions for the game. Good times ahead!
5 pings