RIFT
73 entries. 44,503 words.
2012-06
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The Secret World.
2012-06-29.
I’ve had a burst of gaming enthusiasm in the last month or so, ending my streak of playing basically nothing since Christmas. As usual, I tend to gravitate toward RPGs and MMOs.
The last MMO I played before my break was Star Wars: The Old Republic, which I found enjoyable, but not enough to keep playing past the free month. Then recently, on an impulse, I bought TERA, which boasted a totally fresh new action-based combat system, but again, it didn’t keep my attention past the first month.
- MMORPG
- Status
2012-07
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Down the Rabbit Hole.
2012-07-17.
I’m a bit surprised to say this but I don’t think I’ll be playing TSW beyond the free month. In fact, I stopped playing long before the free month ended. I’m still glad I pre-ordered it, though, because it deserves to have a chance. But I realized that I don’t feel much of a sense of character advancement while playing. You don’t get new weapons very often, and you don’t really get new powers very often, either.
- Dungeons
- MMORPG
- Status
- Theory
2013-06
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Back to Rift For A Bit.
2013-06-13.
I think I’m going to lay off of Neverwinter until the big upcoming patch. I find that I have little interest in doing anything in that game except running dungeons, but since it is nearly impossible to get through a queue after level 50, I just stand there doing nothing most of the time. I’m rather hoping that the next patch will make the dungeon queue work a lot better. If not, then I doubt I’ll play it much more until they make some changes.
- MMORPG
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Fresh 60 In Rift.
2013-06-18.
Well the “big patch” for Neverwinter came a week earlier than I expected. Guess what? No changes in queueing - it still takes forever. So I’ve basically given up on Neverwinter, so it’s all Rift all the time for me!
My mage reached level 60, so now I’m a “fresh 60.” I’m not sure how long the total journey from 50 to 60 took, but it took a little over a week to get from 55 to 60.
- MMORPG
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Weekend Rift Accomplishments.
2013-06-24.
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.
- MMORPG
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Low-Level Tanking.
2013-06-25.
I’ve got MMO fever pretty bad right now - sorry IRL. :/ So I’m getting ready to start tanking RotF on my new Defiant warrior, and since I’m stuck at work for a while I thought I’d go lookup some up-to-date “low level tanking” guides first. Except there aren’t any. I found where someone asked for one on the forums, but the basic response from the tankerotti was, “Just do anything.
- MMORPG
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Mentored Healing Attempts.
2013-06-26.
I queued for healing twice with my mage last night. I ticked the “Mentor” checkbox and a Random Normal dungeon, because I’m a chicken, and wanted to see if I remembered anything at all about Chloromancer.
So first I got into Storm Breaker Protocol, one of the SL dungeons. First I hit as healer, then someone refused, then I hit as a DPS. When I arrived, the group had just gotten beyond the mech suits.
- MMORPG
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Drama Queen Tanks.
2013-06-26.
So I tried to get in a random expert with my mage, something I try to do at least once a day. It was Archive of Flesh, and right away the support guy says it’s his first time. No problem, it’s the right thing to say that up front and actually pretty ballsy because most people don’t admit it. :) For a while, he did basically no DPS so he was actually trying to play a support role - normally not required unless the healer requests it, but no big deal to me.
- MMORPG
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Tanking Realm of the Fae.
2013-06-26.
So I tanked Realm of the Fae on my level 16 Bahmi warrior for the first time, using a Reaver/Paladin/Tempest build. (Technically you can queue for it at 15, but I waited until 16 so I had an AoE attack.) I was pretty nervous beforehand - tanking is stressful for me, and I had not seen RotF in about a year, and who knows what they might have changed for Storm Legion.
- MMORPG
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Newbie Tanking Realm of the Fae (Normal).
2013-06-27.
I now present my newbie tanking guide for Realm of the Fae (Normal). I am roughly two years late in writing this guide, but it’s actually hard to find a guide like this that isn’t written by a theorycrafter who is used to max level tanking.
You can queue for RotF at level 15, but it’s probably better to wait until level 16 so you can bring an AoE attack ability with you.
- MMORPG
- Guide
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Healer Meltdown.
2013-06-27.
I did one random expert 60 last night with my mage and got into Golem Foundry, which is one I know fairly well now (thanks to many previous PUG wipes). Everything went fine until the tank accidentally needed on a green dimension item before the last boss (the aptly-named Manslaughter) and for some reason the healer had a complete meltdown about it. None of us even noticed (including the tank) but the healer took it as a personal insult or something and we had to kick him because he stopped healing the tank.
- MMORPG
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Stranger Guildies.
2013-06-28.
It was a light, ordinary evening in Rift. I did a blissfully un-dramatic random expert SL dungeon (Archive of Flesh) with a good tank/healer duo and ended up with a nice purple mage dagger at the end, which is probably the best I will ever see until or unless I start raiding.
So I’m in this guild, right? But it’s one of those guilds that basically takes anyone, no-questions-asked, so it’s got thousands of random people in it, so I see a lot of fellow guildies out in the wild even though I don’t know any of them.
- MMORPG
2013-07
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Rift Mage Maxed Out.
2013-07-01.
Hrm. Over the weekend I started to realize that Rift is actually not as much fun as I thought. My mage is 60 and has a bunch of expert dungeon gear, so the only way left to advance that character is raiding with the guild, but the thought of setting up ventrillo and signing up for schedules and all that crap is not very appealing. Even the expert dungeons are kind of painful.
- MMORPG
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Newbie Tanking Iron Tombs (Normal).
2013-07-05.
Again, it is hard to mess up Iron Tombs on Normal. My Bahmi warrior uses a Reaver/Paladin build, with more points into damage abilities than armor/endurance abilities for better threat. I also now have a Cleric that I tank with, for which I use the standard tank preset.
When you start, first determine if people need the quests. If they don’t, you can skip a lot of side stuff.
The trash mobs are straightforward all throughout.
- MMORPG
- Guide
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Newbie Guide to Dungeons.
2013-07-09.
I am writing this newbie guide because there are a surprising number of people who go into the first couple of normal Rift dungeons without knowing these basics. Perhaps they have never played Rift before, or they have never played an MMO before, or they have never played in a group before.
General
Do remember that playing in a group requires different skills than soloing.
Do avoid using tank pets because they interfere with the actual tank.
- MMORPG
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Rift Is Too Easy.
2013-07-09.
Since there are a lot of new people flooding into Rift, there have been complaints on the forums from the usual suspects about how easy it is to level. I can confirm that yes, it’s really easy to get from 1 to 50, and it’s now easier than ever. It used to be harder, but even back when it was hard, it was still pretty easy for a veteran gamer to get to 50.
- MMORPG
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Newbies in the Lowbie Dungeons.
2013-07-09.
I spent most of the holiday weekend queuing for lowbie dungeons with my new collection of lowbie Defiants.
I’ve realized that I don’t like tanking with a warrior … dealing with the builder/finisher mechanic interferes with focusing on the tanking. Maybe I just need to forget about finishers. Anyway I generally prefer the cleric tank, where you don’t have to really do anything but spam the AoE attack. (I say that knowing full well that you almost never see cleric tanks in raids or expert dungeons.
- MMORPG
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Healers and Tanks are like Cats and Dogs.
2013-07-12.
I got into a couple of particularly bad Rift dungeon groups all in one night, and they both basically came down to a fight between the tank and the healer. “You’re a terrible tank” vs. “you’re a terrible healer.”
One group was in Realm of the Fae. The tank was a dwarf warrior who clearly didn’t have a tank soul setup, and played with a two-hander generating no threat whatsoever. He didn’t attempt to gather any mobs that got away from him either.
- MMORPG
2013-10
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Can Rift Really Be Fading Away?.
2013-10-17.
TAGN wrote* that the Happy Time for Rift is over. Meaning that its resurgence in popularity after it went F2P is over, and now it has nowhere to go but down. It’s hard to disagree since when I last logged into Hailol up in the Dendrome, it was a ghost town.
He also had a fair number of negative things to say about Rift going F2P, saying that he immediately unsubscribed when he heard about it.
- MMORPG
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Rift Server Merges Meh.
2013-10-24.
Rift completed server merges. I didn’t notice any change, personally. I logged in for a few minutes, decided I still had no interest in the Fae Autumn Festival thingy, then logged out again. It kind of sucks that nobody is playing it anymore. Where did everyone go? FFXIV, the newest shiney? Or back to some other game?
- MMORPG
2013-11
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GW2 Tower of Nightmares and Story in MMOs.
2013-11-07.
I saw a lot of negative reactions around the blogosphere to the GW2 Tower of Nightmares update. Surprisingly, the main criticism seems to be that people aren’t interested in the new story. It isn’t engaging enough.
This is puzzling to me for a couple of reasons. First, I didn’t even realize there was a story in the new GW2 update, and second, I didn’t realize people judged new MMO content on the new storylines brought into the world.
- MMORPG
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Rift Song of Dreams – Where Is It?.
2013-11-08.
I got an email from Trion saying that the Rift Song of Dreams patch 2.5 was live, so I eagerly patched up and logged in. What I saw was … nothing. Nothing looked different in Tempest Bay, so I checked my mail to get what I was sure would be a nice invitation to participate in the cool new Mini-Saga and … there was no mail. I knew all the action was supposed to happen on Ember Isle so I took the nearest porticulum over there and … nothing was happening.
- MMORPG
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Achievements – The Journey Is Part of The Reward.
2013-11-09.
Lots of talk about achievements. Are they good? Are they bad? MMO Gypsy hates them (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RagingMonkeys/~3/UCUa6ra8IUg/achievement-hate-exploration-and-mystery.html), Herding Cats defends them (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/machiavelliscat/xgUW/~3/EBQ0bOGdQLk/), and CuppyVille relies on them (http://cuppyville.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/in-which-i-defend-achievements-in-mmos/). Me? I tend to ignore them.
It’s true that I’m an Explorer on the Bartle test, so you might think I’d be siding with Syp in saying that achievements have destroyed the MMO genre. Well, first of all, I don’t think the genre has been destroyed at all; I think it’s far better now than it’s ever been.
- MMORPG
- Discussion
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MMO Pinball.
2013-11-13.
Just so you know, I have been a veritable pinball of MMO playing lately.
First FFXIV leveling an Archer/Bard to level 30. Then WoW leveling a Mage from around 17 to 50, and leveling some other characters. Then GW2 to check out the Tower of Nightmares. Then LoTRO leveling my hobbit Hunter from 38 to 45. Then Rift to check out the Song of Dreams patch. Even a little bit of Neverwinter and TERA and (gasp) Aion thrown in there between.
- MMORPG
- Progression Report
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Rift Song of Dreams Mini-Saga Completed.
2013-11-15.
It took me a while, but I finally found the new content for Song of Dreams. Looking at the map around Ember Isle, I noticed there was a shaded area off to the west of the island that looked new, so I started running that way and found a little island at the extreme western edge with new stuff! (If you think Ember Isle looks like a reverse Pac Man like I do, it’s in the mouth.
- MMORPG
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Rift, Great For Introverts.
2013-11-27.
I’ve been trying to pinpoint exactly what it is that I love(d?) about Rift, and I think I figured it out. It was perfect for an introvert like me who enjoys solo play, but also wants to do group activities without a lot of hassle. Rift’s dynamic rifts and zone events fulfilled that requirement perfectly.
You’re out doing quests to level your character, enjoying the scenery. Then a zone event breaks out, and you rush to the spot marked on your map and find a big group of players there.
- MMORPG
2014-01
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Rift – What’s It Going To Take?.
2014-01-23.
I read a fluff article on MMORPG.com about 5 Things Rift Must Do In 2014, which got me thinking. What would it take to get me to play Rift again on a daily basis again in 2014?
Well, the answer is pretty simple: Give me an expansion with new zones and more levels.
(Alternately, if I totally ran out of stuff to do in other MMOs I’m playing, I would probably play Rift.
- MMORPG
2014-02
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Rift – Dreamweaving In 2.6.
2014-02-10.
Don’t get me wrong, I am ecstatic to see Rift adding new “stuff” to the game, but unfortunately Dreamweaving-a crafting profession for enhancing Dimensions-is way far down on the list of things that interest me. Dreamweaving allegedly allows you to craft thingys and gizmos and whatsises for your Dimensions, but I have yet to do much of anything with my Dimensions, except dump in all the Dimension items that keep filling up my inventory.
- MMORPG
2014-03
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Landmark et al – Take My Money!.
2014-03-03.
Here’s my feedback to SOE regarding Landmark’s proposed monetization plans: Hey can I just pay you and not get spammed with advertising for potions and costumes? That would be super. Oh, and by the way I already paid you. Maybe factor that into your plans, too.
Also, are you ever planning to increase the percentage of your game that is finished? It’s been at 60% now for a month. (Okay, that probably wasn’t fair.
- MMORPG
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Bye End of Nations.
2014-03-06.
I’m not sad to see End of Nations go. The “MMORTS” genre did not inspire me to want to play that game, and when we later learned it was to be reshaped into a “MOBA” my interest plummeted even farther. (I simply do not “get” MOBAs - so much clicking.)
Instead, I’m ecstatic to see Trion devoting more resources to Rift, Trove, Defiance, and particularly ArcheAge, a game that I am still looking forward to seeing sometime within my lifetime.
- MMORPG
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Rift – New Souls in 2.7.
2014-03-12.
When last I was playing Rift a lot, somewhere around 2.3 I guess (just before and after the F2P transition), I was super excited to hear they were going to (evenutally) add new souls so that every class could play every role. The idea of a tanking mage was too awesome for words. Even from the very beginning of Rift 1.0, I thought it would be really cool if you could tank dungeons with an Elementalist pet.
- MMORPG
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Claustrophobic Endgame.
2014-03-24.
I figured out what is missing from my daily FFXIV experience: Soloing.
I realized this when I logged into Rift and picked up my Dendrome quest line where I last left off months and months ago. There’s something fundamentally satisfying about toodling around by yourself, chipping away at quests and turning them in. You can stop at any time and fix yourself a drink, or make a sandwich, or whatever. You can get up and go to the store, leaving your character standing right out in the middle of nowhere.
- MMORPG
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Rift – Re-thinking the Solo 53 Warrior.
2014-03-25.
I thought maybe I could use this time before ESO launches to level another character in Rift up to 60. The lucky winner of my attention is a Dwarf Warrior, who is currently at 53 and wandering around the depressing, sickly, bruised blue-and-purple landscapes of Seratos.
It seemed like a great idea until I remembered that almost every single encounter ended with my health nearly depleted. I read once that the Storm Legion zones had been nerfed, but they don’t seem all that much easier to me.
- MMORPG
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Rift – Tempest For The Win.
2014-03-27.
I spent most of a whole weekend playing … Rift! Man that game is awesome. Have I mentioned that? It’s the best WoW-clone of all the WoW-clones. Definitely more better than WoW itself.
I leveled my Warrior from 53 to 57, using a combination of quests and Instant Adventures. Mostly IAs. I used up three 160% Experience potions that I had from some Trion gift or another, and then I got a 30-day Patron status so I could use the daily 40% Experience bonuses for the rest of the trip to 60, which will probably occur during the week.
- MMORPG
2014-04
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GW2 – Dreading Logging In.
2014-04-17.
I was interested in checking out the new GW2 Feature Pack until I read Zubon’s warning. Apparently you have to re-do and re-learn all your characters after you login.
I suppose I should have expected it, given the complete restructuring of the trait-lines. But facing the cold, hard reality of having to re-learn your class from the ground up is pretty daunting. Especially when you haven’t thought about GW2 traits in ages.
- MMORPG
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ESO – Public Dungeon Boss Bots.
2014-04-30.
Massively wondered why public dungeon boss bots are so hard to stamp out in ESO. I thought I would answer this in a blog post, because any comment I posted would be lost in the noise.
I don’t have any first-hand “inside baseball” knowledge but from what I’ve pieced together from years and years of developer posts about how bots are dealt with, this is my guess on why they can’t just snap their fingers and make all the bots in public dungeons disappear:
- MMORPG
- Responses
2014-05
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ESO – Decision Time.
2014-05-01.
Okay I’m just going to say it. ESO is not holding my attention. I keep logging in and thinking to myself, “You know, I don’t particularly feel like playing this.” I’ll go through a quest or two and then log out again.
It’s a major factor in why I went ahead and dropped cough cough dollars on ArcheAge.
And yet I can’t think of anything wrong with ESO (well, except for inventory management - it’s really a pain).
- MMORPG
- Status
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ESO – Sub Cancelled For Now.
2014-05-06.
I went ahead and cancelled my ESO subscription. I’ve got a few more days left but I suspect my Templar will stay at level 36. I think I will wait two or three months and return to see what changes have been made. I like the direction I’m seeing in the roadmap; I’m just itching to do other things right now.
Go to the light!
In the meantime, I’m planning to play Rift 2.
- MMORPG
- Status
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Rift – Trying Out The Arbiter in 2.7.
2014-05-12.
I tried out the mage tanking soul Arbiter in Rift 2.7 on Thursday night. Overall I was pleased with its performance in Realm of the Fae, but I’m a bit worried that it will be “complicated” to play at higher levels. Take that with a big grain of salt though as I am far from an expert tank, and I have only seen low-level abilities.
The "Arcanist" preset with the Arbiter, Stormcaller, and Warlock soul trees.
- MMORPG
- Reviews
- Tanking
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ESO – Complete One-Eighty On Subbing.
2014-05-13.
So, yeah, I changed my mind and subbed for one month of ESO. I did it after I played the Arbiter in Rift for a night, and realized to my horror that there was no way that I would be able to fill all of my gaming time between now and the WildStar launch with Rift tanking.
I sort of forgot to factor in my terror of tanking high-level dungeons in PUGs.
- MMORPG
- Status
- Tanking
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May, The MMO Crisis Month.
2014-05-19.
May has been an MMO crisis month.
I can only stand to play ESO for a quest or two at a time. There’s nothing wrong with the game (except the horrible inventory management and dungeon grouping tools). I accept full responsibility for my lack of enjoyment. At level 41, my stupid Two-Handed Templar build feels weak and ineffective, and it has almost no AoE damage capability. Everyone around me in public dungeons is burning down big groups in seconds, but I have to wack on mobs one at a time.
- MMORPG
- Status
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On Hardcore Raiding.
2014-05-27.
After I listened to Massively’s latest podcast featuring an interview with WildStar developers, I realized that I hadn’t said anything about Carbine’s hardcore raiding philosophy, which is a topic of some mild controversy.
One of them raid thingys, blatantly stolen from the WildStar site.
If you aren’t aware, WildStar raids are supposed to be really hard like the old school raids of yore. They are taking the stance that their raids are meant for hardcore guilds and players only, and they won’t be dumbing them down over time like most other games do.
- MMORPG
- Responses
- Discussion
2014-06
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Mid-June MMO Status Report.
2014-06-20.
Not much to talk about, so here’s a non-WildStar MMO status report!
ArcheAge. I’ve only logged in to pay the taxes on my measely 8×8 farm, and occasionally grow aspen trees. I don’t expect to play this any more until after it launches.
The Secret World. I have logged in every few days to grind through a mission or two in the City of the Sun God zone. I’m attempting to collect AP and SP so I can fill out my skills better, which will better prepare me to go back to the Besieged Farmlands and continue the main story quest, which will then eventually allow me to get to Tokyo perhaps sometime in 2018.
- MMORPG
- Status
2014-07
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Ditching WildStar for WoW.
2014-07-02.
I cancelled my WildStar subscription*. It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just that I don’t feel like playing it any more. My Esper has remained largely static between levels 20 and 30, with no noticeable improvements in abilities, so I fully anticipate it will just be a repetitive chore to get from 30 to 50, at which time I would enter the cesspool of toxic behavior that I keep hearing about.
- MMORPG
- Status
2014-10
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Ping-Ponging My Way To Nightmare Tide.
2014-10-23.
I took a little break from ArcheAge and it turned into an unintentional gaming ping-ping-a-thon. Don't worry, I still log into ArcheAge to gather the fruit from my trees a couple times a day. Also, I finally destroyed my Scarecrow Garden to make a Farmer's Workbench. I hated to do it, though. I wish I could rotate my house to face a different direction. FFXIV First I dropped back into Final Fantasy XIV again because I had an active subscription.
- MMORPG
- Status
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Rift – Nightmare Tide.
2014-10-31.
I’ve been playing nothing but Rift since the expansion came out.* If you even remotely like the game, you should definitely check out Nightmare Tide. I’m a little biased though, since I think Rift is the best themepark MMO out there, far surpassing WoW in every possible way. (Except in the amount of available content and player population.)
A nice vista in Goboro Reef.
Good things about Nightmare Tide:
Ridiculously Plentiful Gathering Nodes.
- MMORPG
- Reviews
- Status
2014-11
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A November Kitchen Sink Post.
2014-11-11.
Hi! You may remember that I used to write blog posts. At least occasionally. Unfortunately this month two things have happened: Rift Nightmare Tide and NaNoWriMo. Those two things, particularly the former, are way more interesting than writing blog posts. But I thought I would take a break and quickly write down some stuff about things.
Chatting with Arak near the end of Draumheim.
Overwatch. Blizzard is making a role-based shooter (cough Team Fortress cough).
- MMORPG
- Musings
- Status
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Rift – Nightmare Judgments.
2014-11-22.
One thing I’ve noticed in Rift’s Nightmare Tide is more pressure to spend money. I don’t mean in terms of a sales pitch; I mean in terms of making the game less tedious.
Losing my head over Nightmare Tide! (Not really, it's a Halloween costume mask.)
For example, two new things in Nightmare tide are Earring Slots and the Planewalker “attunement” which allows you to wear some of the new gear.
- MMORPG
- Opinion
- Reviews
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Rift Enthusiasm Waning, Bring on Draenor.
2014-11-29.
November is nearly over, which means NaNoWriMo is almost over for another year. As of this posting, I have some 1,500 words left to do before validating. (The story is nowhere near done, and I expect I will need to add another 40,000-50,000 words to actually finish the novel.)
I’m growing a bit tired of Rift. I finished the main story and got my main Mage to 65, and my Rogue, Warrior, and Cleric are all sitting at 60.
- MMORPG
- Status
2015-01
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Arbitrary Mid-January Status Update.
2015-01-19.
I’m in a “bouncing around between games” mode at the moment, now that I’m done with Elite: Dangerous. I’ve been logging into two or three or four different MMOs a day, looking for one to capture my imagination.
Level 100!
WoW. My WoW subscription runs out on the 20th, and I won’t be renewing. WoW is a fun game, but I always tire of it pretty quickly. I did manage to reach level 100 with my Hunter and upgrade my Garrison, though.
- MMORPG
- Status
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Comparing Played Times.
2015-01-21.
I found an old, old screenshot of my main Asheron’s Call character from near the end of my playing time:
What MMORPGs looked like when they were more work than fun.
There’s some interesting things to note there. First of all, my /played time was 17d 11h 26m 22s. I spent a ridiculous amount of time playing that game… it seemed like my entire life was spent in that game for about a year.
- MMORPG
- Musings
2015-02
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Progression Report – February.
2015-02-28.
I think I’ll make this a “thing” and do a monthly progress report of all the MMOs I’m playing. I started running a time tracking program* called ManicTime so I can actually record precisely how much I’ve played every game now.
FFXIV (22 hrs)**. I unlocked most of the new 2.5 dungeons and World of Darkness, however I haven’t actually gone into any of them yet. (To this day I’ve only done one level 50 dungeon-Amdapor Keep for the Relic quest.
- MMORPG
- Progression Report
- Status
2015-04
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Progression Report – March.
2015-04-01.
March was definitely a low point in my 2015 MMORPG activity, but don’t panic. This is normal for me. There’s usually one or more months during the year when I end up watching television instead. Still, I accomplished a few things.
In Rift, I continued to log in every few days to collect Minion rewards and send them out again. My bank and inventory is bursting with useless junk.
In Final Fantasy XIV, I forgot to mention that I joined the cool blogger Free Company on Cactuar.
- MMORPG
- Progression Report
- Status
2015-08
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Rift – The Primalist Announcement.
2015-08-07.
Of course the big news Thursday from Gamescom was Trion’s announcement of a new Calling-the Primalist.
I can’t say the name jumps out at me as being the coolest name for a calling ever, but then it’s hard to follow up the likes of Mage, Cleric, Warrior, and Rogue. I mean there’s not much left after those four. Bureaucrat? Astronomer? Primalist is as good as anything. Although it doesn’t quite sound like something that channels animal spirits.
- MMORPG
- Musings
2015-10
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Progression Report – September 2015.
2015-10-03.
September’s report is again pretty easy: No MMORPG progression, however quite a lot of Dark Souls progression. I started Dark Souls II on roughly the 5th and as of this writing, I’ve completed the main storyline and have moved on to the post-launch DLC content on my first character. I’ve been posting a video series of my play-through on YouTube for those who might be inclined to watch.
I’m starting to get a little tired of the Dark Souls rabbit hole (the Dark Souls II DLC content is getting pretty frustrating), so I might finally get back to some MMORPGs soon.
- MMORPG
- Progression Report
- RPG
- Single-Player
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The Light, It Burns.
2015-10-19.
Now that I’ve finished Dark Souls 1 & 2 I’m slowly emerging from the rabbit hole back into the sunlight. Mostly to read about Dark Souls 3, but still, it’s something.
I managed to gain a handful of levels in SWTOR, but not nearly as many as I wanted. At the risk of sounding like a fanboy, every RPG now seems like a kid’s game compared to the Dark Souls experience.
- MMORPG
- RPG
- Single-Player
- Status
2016-08
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Legion Pre-Expansion Invasions Are Fun.
2016-08-15.
I had fun with the WoW Zone Events aka. Invasions over the weekend.
But first, the biggest news from my weekend was that I finally moved all my furniture from the old rental house into my new house. I achieved my goal of picking the hottest day of the entire year to move. I believe it was upwards of 95 degrees Farenheit with a heat index of 105. (Google tells me that’s 35 and 40.
- MMORPG
- Reviews
- Status
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Legion Ordered.
2016-08-17.
I went ahead and ordered Legion. Why not? I had fun with the last expansion. For a little while, at least. And a level 100 boost is worth a fair chunk of change to me, considering it normally takes me years to get to the level cap in WoW. (Although I confess I have yet to use the level 90 boost I got in the last expansion.)
My second-highest level character in WoW is a Gnome Mage at, now, level 77, thanks to a handful of Invasions.
- MMORPG
- Status
2016-09
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Bonding With Characters.
2016-09-15.
It’s only been two days and I already regret changing my main FFXIV character’s gender. Who is this total stranger running around in Eozera now? What happened to the free-spirited girl who rode to Gridania in search of fame and fortune, and ended up conquering titans and dragons? This new guy is an imposter. He hasn’t earned the right to be there.
Imposter! You don’t deserve to be in that grand company!
- MMORPG
- Musings
2016-10
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Audiobooks, NaNoWriMo, and other Miscellany.
2016-10-18.
This is one of those rambling posts about everything and nothing, because I don’t have much to say. Just writing for the sake of writing because I was bored at work.
I’ve been listening to audiobooks again, trying to use up my credits. I recently finished Stephen King’s 11.22.63, which was beautifully read by Craig Wasson. He’s the actor who played the lead in that weird 80s movie Body Double. Now I’m listening to Stephen King’s End of Watch, which is beautifully read by Will Patton.
- MMORPG
- Status
2016-11
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Starting Rift’s Starfall Prophecy.
2016-11-22.
I grudgingly embarked into Rift’s Starfall Prophecy over the weekend. I wasn’t excited about it, but I needed an excuse to postpone writing for NaNoWriMo. I’m trying to catch up from a huge deficit, so it’s important to put things off as long as possible. Anyway I pre-ordered Starfall Prophecy, so I figured I might as well play it.
The dreaded Tuathe’de, who don’t ever turn around
I was very thankful to see that you still get tokens for logging in.
- MMORPG
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Rift – This Thing Is Hard Yo.
2016-11-28.
I broke down and bought 15 days of Patron status in Rift. The amount of extra XP gain is very large and noticeable and I would say almost mandatory, at least if you want to keep your sanity while leveling.
Before continuing with my Mage, in a fit of rage over being so under-powered in the new zones, I got out my Primalist and started leveling him. I made a Primalist back when they first came out but only got to level 9.
- MMORPG
- Status
2016-12
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Xarth and The Post-NaNo Blues.
2016-12-02.
Last night I welcomed on old friend back into my life: The post-NaNoWriMo blues. I’ve written about this before. Here’s me from December 2011:
“The act of creation is so thrilling and stimulating and awesome that when it’s over, there’s nothing left inside but a black empty void of nothingness. For me, it generally manifests as a fervent desire to stare at the walls and feel useless all day.”
I remember writing much more colorful language about it, though.
- MMORPG
- Writing
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Not Much To Get Excited About.
2016-12-14.
I sort of lost interest in Rift when I got to level 68. Xarth Mire is not very pleasant to run around in, what with the lack of safe roads, the rather high mob density, and the frog tongues that constantly pull you to them no matter how much you want to run away from them.
But mainly I drifted away from Rift because I started playing Fallout: New Vegas. I played it for about 8 hours last year, then put it away when Fallout 4 came out.
- MMORPG
- Status
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The Prestigious Endgame Viable Awards 2016.
2016-12-22.
It occurred to me that the end of the year is approaching, and it’s time to do one of those year-end posts that bloggers love to do. Unfortunately I kind of hate doing them. It’s a lot of work. You have to actually look things up and think and count and multiply and divide and things like that. That goes against my normal principal of blogging by “just typing words into a text editor.
- MMORPG
- Single-Player
- Steam
2017-08
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Comfort MMORPGs.
2017-08-25.
Here’s another post based on a MassivelyOP’s Daily Grind:
What’s Your Comfort MMO?
I find this to be a somewhat odd question, because I generally like to have a constantly-changing game experience, as opposed to an experience that is always the same. I am the kind of person who likes to learn and try new things all the time (within the boundaries of crippling anxieties, of course). This is why I try out most new MMORPGs if I can.
- MMORPG
- Responses
2018-01
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Rift Prime – Too Late?.
2018-01-22.
Looking longingly at the place where level 69 players-or patrons-can go. I suppose the announcement of RIFT Prime deserves its own blog post, rather than an offhand remark in a news summary.
Like most of the other reactions I’ve read, I’m tentatively interested, but I’m certainly not jumping on the hype train yet.
See, here’s the thing. I’m probably only going to subscribe to one game at a time. Historically the main reason is that there are precious few games out there worth subscribing to.
- MMORPG
2018-02
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RIFT Leveling Anew.
2018-02-12.
With all the buzz about RIFT Prime, I wondered if I could recreate a nostalgic experience for free just by starting a new character on plain old RIFT Normal. I wanted to check two things: To see if experience points were withheld from free players at the beginning of the game just like at level 68, leading to hard road blocks that could only be made up by endless grinding or spending cash.
- MMORPG
- Opinion
2018-03
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MMO Roundup #8.
2018-03-09.
Now I’m trying to work out why WordPress keeps using old images when it posts these things to Twitter. I think it’s because I was using a “Clone Post” plugin to make these posts. So I’m making this one from scratch.
Seeing as how there is a game-breaking bug that prevents me from continuing to play it, I’ve abandoned Kingdom Come: Deliverance until whichever decade Warhorse decides to release the 1.
- MMORPG
- Roundup
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RIFT Prime – The First Week.
2018-03-12.
2 plat 50 gold for that horse so you better believe it gets a screenshot! I mentioned briefly that I jumped into RIFT Prime, because of course I did. Everybody was talking about it, so as an MMORPG player, it is part of the rules that you have to join in on whatever the newest, shiniest thing is, especially if there is even the slimmest of possibilities that it might actually be fun.
- MMORPG
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MMO Roundup #9.
2018-03-16.
A weekly diary of MMO news and observations.
The Bane Bard 330 outfit, mostly. The boots don't match! It’s been a very unusual multi-game bonanza lately. Normally I stick with one game at a time, but I’ve been all over the place. This is not a good thing. It means that none of the games I’m currently playing are all that interesting to me, and I’m in that mood where I’m searching for The Next Big Thing.
- MMORPG
- Roundup
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MMO Roundup #10.
2018-03-23.
A weekly diary of MMO news and observations.
Secret World Legends, the League of Monster Slayers tree house In my last roundup I said that Secret World Legends wasn’t The Next Big Thing. This week I made a new Templar Sword/Elementalist and now suddenly the game looks fresh and interesting and exciting again. It just goes to show how much a tiny change in play style can make a huge difference in one’s perception of a game.
- Administration
- MMORPG
- Roundup
2018-10
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Trion Sold To Who Now?.
2018-10-23.
Trion Worlds was just acquired by a company called Gambino. No wait, it’s Gamigo.
I don’t have much to say about this except I’ve never heard of Gamigo before. I’m hardly an expert in the global operations of every company in the gaming industry, but it does seem a little bit strange that the name Gamigo has never crossed my MMO radar in the last twenty years. They seem to be based in Germany, so maybe it’s not that surprising.
- MMORPG