Sunday, June 26, 2011

Rift: Ciderhelm on Warrior Tanking

Ciderhelm is very knowledgable on warrior tanking.  This guide has been updated to be current (Patch 1.3).  Note the link to leveling information.
http://ciderhelm.com/?p=597

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Rift: What the heck are Synergy Crystals?

Patch 1.3 has introduced a new slot for synergy crystals.  So what the heck are synergy crystals?  They are Rift's fix to the problem of armor sets.  Normally in MMOs there are sets of armor that are visually related in some way which give bonuses to the classes.  In other words, your helmet and leggings and shield and such are all the same color, have the same symbols on them, etc. and when you collect the whole set, it provides stat bonuses for this or that character type.  In Rift there are so many character types possible through mixing souls, developers haven't been able to produce an armor set for each class.  The armor bonuses that work for one type of mage will mean nothing to another type.  Synergy crystals provide a way around this problem.  I'm going to quote from the article in the link below to explain.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/06/22/rift’s-1-3-patch-adds-set-items-to-telara/

"In order to avoid this potential problem, Trion found a clever workaround: Rift’s Armor Sets are still defined by your class, but the extra bonuses given for collecting multiple pieces of gear in that Set aren’t on the items themselves. Instead, those meta-bonuses will be applied through a new, compeltely separate item that will show up in the Character pane when 1.3 launches. They’re called a Synergy Crystals, and each one (there will be 32 different ones at patch launch) gives bonuses to different stats–but only once you’ve collected enough pieces of your Armor Set. Alone, the Crystal doesn’t do anything, but with each Set Item that is equipped, it provides more and more stat bonuses.

For example, a Warrior Riftblade will want to get a Crystal that gives bonuses to Crit, Hit, and Damage, while a Warrior Warlord will be searching for one that enhances his Health and Armor. They’ll both be rolling on the same Plate armor pieces to collect the same Armor Set when they drop from the new Hammerknell content, but the two players will be using them to activate and empower their own, distinct Synergy Crystals–getting completely different bonuses out of the Armor Set. There’s a Snyergy Crystal for each Soul in the game, so there should be at least one good option for every single combination of Souls.

UPDATE: To help clarify, we asked Krausnick if we’ll be able to swap out Synergy Crystals and he confirmed: 'Synergy Crystals work like any other item in the game, too, meaning players can switch them out to get different benefits if they wish. That way, when a Warrior changes from his DPS Role to his Tank Role, he can change the bonus his set gives.'

Naturally, more Armor Sets and Synergy Crystals will be added with future updates, expanding on the foundation laid in tomorrow’s patch. In the meantime, having only four sets (and 32 Crystals) should make things much easier to start, while still letting players enhance their highly-customized characters."

So where do you get synergy crystals? The new armor sets come from the new Hammerknell content while at least the Transplanar synergy sets are purchased from vendors.
http://rift.zam.com/wiki/Synergy_Crystals_(Rift)

The bottom message on this forum posting talks about the various sets.
http://rift.zam.com/forum.html?forum=222&mid=13087559308393621&h=50

Since there are 36 souls if you count all the PvP ones, apparently there aren't any synergy crystals for PvP yet.

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Rift: Patch 1.3 Known Issues and Features

Waves of Madness/Patch 1.3 hit June 23, but there have been problems.  The bugs are listed at the top of this posting, with features listed later.
http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?212051-RIFT-1.3-NA-8-00am-PDT-6-22-11-EU-TBA

This website spells out the Waves of Madness multi-phase event and the new daily quests well.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/06/25/the-pcg-guide-get-everything-out-of-rifts-1-3-event-while-you-can-phase-1/

This talks about new gear.
http://www.riftjunkies.com/2011/06/15/patch-1-3-pts-world-event-and-raid-gear-previews/

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Monday, June 6, 2011

Rift: Loot Bag Full/Missing

If your loot bag is missing (or the entire rift icon doesn't show up when you enter a rift), check out this series of messages on the forums.
http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?141920-Where-is-my-Rift-loot-bag!-!

Here are another ways to recover the loot bag. Note that resetting your UI will wipe your UI setup.
http://forums.riftgame.com/rift-general-discussions/tech-support/221118-rift-ui-icon-not-showing-reward-after-rifts.html

Apparently when you enter a rift, the rift meter appears.  You can see what it looks like on page 30 of the online Rift manual. At the bottom left of this rift meter there's an icon that looks like a coin purse.  On page 35 it says to click on the icon and the bag will open so you can remove items.  Don't let the bag get full or items are destroyed when new ones are added.
http://www.riftgame.com/en/docs/RIFT_Manual_EN.pdf

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The Special PVP Soul

Each calling (mage, rogue, etc.) can buy (with 2500 favor points earned in Warfronts) a special PVP soul.  Here's all about it.
http://telarapedia.com/wiki/PvP_Soul

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Sunday, June 5, 2011

Rift: Tanking 101

A guide to tanking Rift.
http://tanktelara.com/forums/blog/6/entry-7-tanking-101-meatshields-in-telara/

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Rift: How to Kill Healers in PVP

Read the comments for more tips on how to off healers.
http://thisisnotarift.blogspot.com/2011/02/healing-reduction.html

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Saturday, June 4, 2011

The PVP Tank in Rift

How important a stat is toughness in a PVP tank?
http://www.pvpgamer.com/rift-toughness-the-tanking-stat

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Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Review: Vampire The Masquerade - Bloodlines

This PC role-playing game has always gotten rave reviews (except the combat is a little weak).  Runn ing on the Half-Life 2 engine, it looks pretty good considering the game came out in 2004.  If you are looking for something different, this might be the game for you.
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/vtmb/video/6113480/vampire-the-masquerade--bloodlines-video-review

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