Level 38.5 and Wouldn't Trade It

I’m half way to level 39 and still enjoying every single moment of Rift!  I can say with absolute certainty, that unless a personal or technical catastrophe happens which prevents me from playing any game at all, I will reach max level in Rift and continue on to raiding. I’m sold.  I’m done and in for the long haul.

I found a new love. I recently started questing in Droughtlands and exploring Lantern hook.  I was having a good time and enjoyed investigating the area's nooks and crannies.  That was until I went to Moonshade Highlands to heal two guild-mates during a couple of elite quests.  OMG - I’m unconditionally, irrevocably and unequivocally in love with this zone.  It reminds me of fantasy meets the springtime Japanese gardens in the Chicago Botanical Garden.  I’m going to quest here for a while then head back to DL which provides some overlap in questing levels.

Riding around MH I feel young again, in terms of gaming. I feel like a new player fresh off the MMO arrival boat astonished by everything I see.  I’m inspired to visit every spot – not wanting to miss a morsel.  I still don’t do all the quests before leveling out of a zone.  I mix the quests with rifts, instances and make my own adventure (slaughter runs against all things I perceive as evil). *Laugh*

Corking the Piggybank

 It’s time to start saving for my level 40 mount.  I’m far from having the 36 plat.  My almost daily soul resetting has kept my piggybank on the low side.  That’s all over now.  I’ve finalized on my three builds and will reserve tweaks until after I’ve purchased my mount. Can't claim they're the best builds or most effective although I obviously try to make them "good".  More than anything they feel right for my style, how I approach combat and they're fun to play.  I feel like me playing these combinations, not me chasing what someone else thinks is best or the flavor du jour.  That said, I'm certainly open to suggestions!!

PVE Death Knight Like Build
For quick solo and AOE style questing I’m sticking with Shaman, Inquisitor and Warden.  This is the build I’ve called my Death Knight like combination.  When I’m going to AOE, I pull with Bolt of Depravity (BOD), Vex everything I’m going to kill then use my Shaman melee abilities in between Rage of the North > Maelstrom > Avalanche. One on one, I fly in with Battle Charge and commence to kicking ass - watching that animation never gets old.  I also use this as a DPS + off-healing spec in instances if there are bards present.

PVE Warlock Like Build
For solo, small group and AOE ranged damage I’m using Inquisitor, Cabalist and Warden.  I’m not a huge fan of the Cabalist but the little I’m choosing from that soul augments this play style which is similar to a Warlock, something I played for several years in WOW.  BOD stays as my opener for single target pulls.  For AOE I start with things that increase damage > increase number of targets that take damage then whatever damage spell is appropriate for the situation.  In open world, that’s usually Oblivion.  In an instance it would be Shadow’s Touch.  

At 38, I don’t have many of the Cabalist abilities.  As my least favorite soul in the combo, I filled out the other two souls first.  I’m sure this will be tweaked as I learn more about how this trio plays out.

Main Tank Healer
I’m happy with my Warden heavy pure healer build.  It can be tricky when you get behind in the rotation and the tank starts taking huge amounts of damage.  One or two people taking damage unexpectedly and you can get behind on the tank rotation.  So far this hasn’t been a problem.  I notice it and am able to recover.  However, in the next tier of instances this might not be my best option.  The one time this build game me trouble was on two bosses in Foul Cascade, where the tank might not have had the best build and the others hadn’t run the instance before.  I’d read about the unforgiving rotation using Warden as the primary healing soul bud hadn’t encountered it as a real issue until a couple of nights ago.  I’ll wait and see how things play out.

No more tweaks until I’m riding my level 40 mount.  That alone will save me almost 2 plat a day that I was spending on moving a couple of points here and there experimenting.  I'm putting time into leveling my crafting now.  I've been harvesting since day one but not making anything.  Oh how I wish I'd known that cracked bones, teeth and other assorted body parts I've been vendoring would be needed for apothecary.  *cries*  No matter, I'll muscle through it my own pace.

Comments

[Green Armadillo]

I'm definitely a lot more excited about MH than Droughtlands. Yes, desolate in Rift is still prettier than desolate in most other games. Yes, there was some greenery in Scarwood (more on the Defiant side of the zone than the Guardian side). Still, trees that aren't dead. And maybe some natural light to go with the non-dead trees. I'm a fan.

You're doing better on cash than I am. I've got about 18 plat at level 36, and my plan is to spend it on my fourth role slot so I can have another spec to play with. It's less that I absolutely need a fourth spec than that I'm hesitant to experiment because I don't want to have to redo all my hotbars if I change out one of my current options. My free turtle is fast enough for now, since there are even faster mounts available at level 50.

[saylah]

I may skip the 40 too. I purchased the 5 th bank slot tonight and 14 slot bags for was compartment. Also the vendor purchased crafting regents required for recipes start are getting expensive!

[Winged Nazgul]

I had my qualms as well buying the level 40 mount. Since I knew I was going to buy the level 50 (epic gold robo-pony 4tw) as well, I thought maybe it would be highly ironic to find myself short the 35 plat when I dinged 50.

But knowing myself and figuring if I could raise the 90 plat in that time, the additional 35 plat wouldn't be that much harder. I opted to splurge for the 40 mount. Turned out to be a great decision as I was still able to go directly to the mount vendor at 50 to buy my epic robo-pony.

The keys were getting lucky with the puzzle dusty sacks and auctioning the rare/epics instead of equipping them, ignoring the AH except to post auctions, and ignoring crafting for a while.

[Saylah]

I need to do the puzzles. I haven't done any yet. I don't things from the AH other than bags. I have been unlucky in selling which ends up costing me lots of gold so I've decided to just vendor. I can make 55G selling a stack of leather to the vendor versus wasting 5G listing on AH and not having it sell at all.

Hmm - guess I'll see how it goes. Crafting pots saves me money on buying them so there's a bit of a trade off there. Grats on 50!!!

[Winged Nazgul]

Thanks!

Got my Mage alt to 36 over the weekend as well. :)

[saylah]

Dang. My main is 41 but I'm out of town this week. *cries* I'm very ready to get to the first expert dungeon to see how it feels.

Are you raiding?

[Winged Nazgul]

Too busy leveling my alt to go grind gear for raiding. But this is on purpose as I am taking it very casually this time around. I'll probably run experts and raids in the future. Or not. Either is fine with me.

[Intraocular lenses]

After about three years I played WoW and I became addicted I decided to quit. But I have not yet found a game that would keep me in front of my PC like WoW did. The trailer of Rift looks very cool and I'd like to see if can keep me addicted in front of my PC :D