Weekend Rift Accomplishments

• MMORPG

• RIFT

I finally got to Grandmaster Runecrafter (375), one tedious point at a time. Then I realized I could have been buying recipes from the Runecrafter Vendor all along … I never scrolled down below the 375 recipes heh. Speaking of professions I bought a fourth profession slot for Artificer, because I had removed it from my cleric to make him a pure gatherer. At the time I thought I would level it up and be able to runebreak the artificer items I made to get to grandmaster, which is still a sound theory, but I hit Runecrafter 375 before I even got to Artificer 150. I still want to get Grandmaster Artificer though because it is such a pain to find things to runebreak.

My Hit is now around 425 and my Intelligence is around 1400. Still nowhere near topping any dungeon DPS … I’m usually last place or second if I’m lucky. I don’t have anywhere near all my runes and essences and seals and synergy crystals that I need yet. I’m not even sure where to *buy* a SL synergy crystal.

But at least I think I’ve now done all of the Storm Legion experts. I may not have actually completed all of them yet though. Seems like about a 50/50 chance that a PUG will get through the whole dungeon. I got a big surprise one time when I was cruising through a dungeon I thought I was familiar with (I think it was Archive of Flesh) when I got to the final boss and realized I had never seen him before. Fortunately I was able to wing it that time.

I love how the SL dungeons are relatively trash-free. I mean there’s rarely more than ten mobs to kill between bosses. Sometimes none whatsoever.

I’ve been playing a plain lazy Pyro build for DPS in dungeons, but I suspect that I need to start min-maxing it if I’m going to get any better DPS out of it. Maybe I’ll try a lazy Harbinger build for a while. And I need to get on the stick and re-learn my mage’s Chloromancer role. Dungeon queues take for-freakin'-ever as DPS: Almost nobody queues for PUGs as a tank or healer, so you can be in a queue for an hour even during peak times. And don’t even bother queueing for a normal dungeon. I was trying to level some alts after 50 and the queues just never pop.

I think I’m going to level a couple of Defiant tanks - one rogue and one warrior - progressing through the old world dungeons as they come up. I want my dwarf warrior to be a tank, but I need the leveling practice, and I’ve not done all of the Defiant zones. And I think it’s almost necessary to use two different characters for tanking vs. DPS, because it’s such a pain to change gear back and forth. Besides, I think low-level zones are more fun than high-level zones, and the queues for tanks should pop instantly.

They sure changed the starter zones since I last saw them. They are super-amazingly-easy now, and you can get through them in like 10-15 minutes. I remember that was one of the things that I liked about Rift originally … my very first character in beta actually died in the starter zone. (Because I didn’t realize you *have* to use abilities to do real damage.) It’s been nerf after nerf ever since then.