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4.0 Rift worth playing / returning? - Guide
IntroductionA good portion of the opening to this thread will be reiterated from the previous one which you can find over here: http://forums.riftgame.com/general-d...ing-guide.html
Please keep in mind that this is for new players who have already decided they want to play or may be on the fence about it still. If you have useful information to contribute the please do so, but please refrain from debating or divulging into negativity. There are plenty of other threads that exist for that purpose already.
Free to play and Buy to Play
As of June 28, 2017 the game has once again gone from Buy to Play back to Free to Play. All you have to do is log in and you will have access to the new zones and content with the exception of Souls and the Primalist calling (if you don't already have them) which are still separate purchases. I would suggest if you're a bit further behind in that regard to buy the Essential's Pack
Is RiFT pay to win?
We'll go ahead and get this one out of the way right off the bat since it's always a point of contention for any free to play game. The short answer is no. Generally when people discuss pay to win in MMOs they're referring to whether or not you can buy something that's going to give you some kind of advantage in the game. Mainly in regard to being able to buy full sets of gear or “Best in Slot” vs someone who doesn't and can't spend real money. There are things that do walk that fine line, but there is technically nothing that is best in slot that can be purchased through with real money. Previous Raid sets used to be put up on the store once a new Tier came out, but with the gear changes made in Prophecy of Ahnket I don't really see that even being a thing anymore. Pretty much everything you can buy on the store is there for convenience purposes like Patron, Notoriety/Currency Boosts ect.
Storm Legion brought what brought the introduction of the in game store and Credits / REX (Rift Exchange0 along with it. You purchase credit packs with real money to buy things on the store, but there are some DLC packs that have direct money purchases on them. REX is an item that can be consumed which gives you 1,250 credits. Players can use these to create their own economies on each server so the prices will vary from seller to seller. Players also buy large credit packs to gift people items and patron time for those that would rather farm platinum in game and buy things off of the store that way. I personally know a few people who have never spent a real dime on the game and have patron and and still buy things off of the store. It's a bit more work, but possible if you truly want to play for free.
Any money you do decide to spend on the game should be thought of as you donating and funding development. Don't be surprised with things like lockboxes or incentives to get you to try and buy things. You should expect that going into any free to play game, but RIFT definitely has one of the better systems out there. My own opinion of course.
Is RIFT worth playing / returning to?
No one person can answer this question for you because the opinions will vary pretty significantly from person to person. It all boils down to what you want to do with your time in the game as the are a multitude of activities which is one of the great things about RIFT.
If you're more casual with gaming then you can look into Dimensions, artifact/achievement hunting, PvPing, questing, lore, chronicles, wardrobing. Those are just the ones off the top of my head. Now I only mentioned PvP in there because generally speaking you can commit yourself to it on your own time and there aren't any set schedules or big grinds to do to get into it like there is with raiding. Please don't take offense PvPers!
That being said, if you complain that you're bored and only limit yourself to one thing in game then that's on you, but even if you do all of the above and still get bored, then find something else to play in the meantime. Developing new content doesn't happen in a day or even in weeks so there will be dry periods. Even the developers play other games.
New to RIFT?
If you're brand new to the game and have already decided to at least try it and and give it a try then be sure to check out The Dawn of Adeventure: A New Player's Guide to Rift by the people over at Gaiscioch.
What are the changes between Nightmare Tide and Starfall Prophecy?
To cut some of the work out, I'm going to post the link to a mini guide I made on my guild site a while back. The changes listed may have slightly changed themselves since the post, but are for the most part still relevant as general information. https://valkyriandescent.enjin.com/f...934#p124744934
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Content Overview
Raids
If you're reading this by the time 4.2 has hit then there should now be three raids out. The LFR or easy mode version of Tartaric Depths which is your introduction to raiding for first timers and for people gearing up. Then comes Normal Mode Tartaric Depths and Rise of the Phoenix which are both considered Tier 1. You can use the LFR UI to join a random easy mode TD or you can form your own premade.
Expert Dungeons
(New) Tuath'de Coven
(New) Templest of Ananke
Intrepid: Darkening Deeps
Intrepid: Gyel Fortress
These tuning goal of these dungeons was to put them on a middle ground. If you take in a group of new players and or players who generally aren't that competent and or don't know their classes that well, then these are going to be very difficult to do. If you take in a good/competent group then chances are they will be overly easy. It sucks for the good/competent group as it's not very challenging, but this method still allows others to at least complete it.
Fortress Sieges
Cracking the Skull and Queen's Foci Guide (If you want to direct me to a better guide then by all means. This is just a quick placeholder)
Note: There will be another fortress Siege coming to Ashenfell in the future.
Eternal Items
Eternal Items and Saga Quest
What kind of classes exist and what changes have been made if I am just coming back to the game?
In an ideal world I would just post all of the specific changes here, but you should put in a little work by clicking some of the links below. Always check when threads / guides were last edited to see if they're up to date. As an important note: People like to keep certain builds and specs a secret out of fear that they'll eventually be nerfed. Class balance is always ongoing despite what people think and there are some balance changes coming really soon to bring all classes down to the same level of DPS. Healing changes will be looked at after that as well.
Warrior Guides
Warrior Discussions
Mage Guides
Mage Discussions
Cleric Guides
Cleric Discussions
Rogue Guides
Rogue Discussions
Primalist Guides
Primalist Discussions
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Grinding and Gearing
What do I need to do and where do I need to go in order to catch up?
This section shouldn't really matter if you're just starting out or just coming back, but if you do plan on raiding then you'll likely want to catch up on current Tier content which is what this section will be about. Getting into a new Tier means getting the required hit for it and investing into fragments and essences. Everything outside of that will depend on how well your learn your class specs and most importantly, rotations.
The first thing you're going to want to work on is your Eternal weapon. Raids will no longer drop weapons since most people have been keeping up on the eternals. It has been stated that when a new tier drops that weapons for the previous tier will be added to the store which can be purchased with Ethereal Shards. You want to do the eternal first because you will hit a state when you get to the wicket minion portion of it which requires you to level it to 25 before you can move on. The minion only starts off with 5 Stamina or so which means you have to use 1 minute missions until you get to level 10 and then send it on 4 hour missions for more/faster exp. IF you're on top of it with rushing and resets then it's still going take you a minimum of 2 weeks to hit cap.
While on Wicket
You'll have time to kill while on wicket so this is the time where you start doing everything else. You can pick up 250 Hit pieces form the auction house. You need 2000 hit to get into Experts and LFR Tataric Depths, but you probably won't do very well in there while in greens unless you're being carried which is always a possibility. If you're starting fresh and don't know anyone to carry you through the LFR then it's better that you jump into Planar Assaults. These will drop creates for every IA completion which have a chance to drop random fragments and green quality 250 hit pieces. You also need to farm this for Notoriety with Planar Defense Force and Mages of Alittu to a lesser extent (better off doing open world rifts for more Alittu rep) so you're knocking our 3 birds with one stone.
Perplexing Puzzles – Alternatively every Zone has puzzles that upon completion will give you gear with level 65-70 gear. Check out the Guide from forbiddenlake Perplexing Puzzle Pieces achievement complete guide
Gear and Tower Fragment Grind
(Note: This is from pre 4.1 and 4.2, but I'm leaving it anyway) We're currently at a point in game where you can easily skip a lot of the expert grind until you actually have to do it for the eternal quest.Once and if you decide to jump into experts there's going to be a few things you'll want to aim for. There are only 3 epic pieces of gear that drop and they are also the only pieces that are tied to specific dungeons from the last boss in each one accordingly. All other loot is shared between all 3 dungeons.
Darkening Deeps – Epic Shoulders
Tuath'de Coven – Epic Legs
Temple of Ahnanke – Epic Chest
Gyel Fortress – Epic Helm
When it comes to running dungeons, the random charges still work the same way they always have. You'll get Tower Fragments (Blue Icon) and Celestial Remnants (Pink) which are the new dungeon marks and Void stones accordingly.
In addition to that, you also get individual rewards. Dungeons are all personal loot now so whenever you kill a boss, you will get tower fragments and 2 random Planar Fragments. If you lock yourself to the dungeon for the day and go back into it again, you will see this window pop up.
This means you can choose to use the reward to gain more tower fragments for that boss as well as another fragment. If you don't use the charge, then the boss will only give you one fragment and still a random chance at gear, but no tower fragments or a second planar fragment. You will gain 2 new charges as a non patron every Wednesday (Reset day) and 10 if you are a patron.
Note: Individual Reward Charges stack up to 100. You'll want to start burning them if you hit that cap
Individual Rewards in Raids Siege Bosses
The IR charges work the same way as dungeons as far as when the window to select whether or not you want to use them pop up, but the amount for the bosses are different. The amounts vary as listed below
Queen's Foci Boss
2 charges, but can also be farmed as many times as you can/want within the time limit that the boss is up for.
LFR Tartaric Depths
Boss 1 - 2 Charges
Boss 2 - 2 Charges
Boss 3 - 3 Charges
Boss 4 - 3 Charges
Intrepid Rise of the Phoenix + Normal Mode Tartaric Depths
Normal Raids still use the old looting systems and lockouts form previous expansions. It remains to be seen if we'll ever move over to personal loot for those as well, but that's the way it is for now.
3 Mini bosses - 5 charges each.
Mini Bosses don't have lockouts and will respawn when you reset the instance even if you have already cleared the instance. If you're locked to either raid with your guild or a pug then you have to use that raids lockout in order to farm the mini bosses. Outside of that though no on will get locked for killing mini bosses.
Bonuses
Note: The 10% and 15% loyalty maps do NOT stack with each other. When you move up in loyalty you will start with the 10% Map and it will simply increase to 15% when you get the new one. The Silver Tier 5% map stacks with anyone in your raid and stack with any loyalty maps and any other % bonuses you have on. Patron bonus totals are in white. Keep in mind that all of the totals and numbers you see on the spreadsheet are the base amount. I made the list assuming people don't have loyalty or patron which is why I provided the % bonuses which you can add up yourself. Here is a percentage calculator if you're lazy like me http://www.rapidtables.com/calc/math...calculator.htm
The Random Dungeons listed are what you get from doing them each day. It does not take into consideration the amount of individual reward charges you personally use while grinding dungeons so you'll have to calculate those yourself.
Noteriety and Spending Fragments/Remnants
There are 6 new reputations in Starfall Prophecy. It's important that you complete the story quest in each zone to unlock the chronicle which not only gives you a decent amount of plat, but also gives you extra rep on top of the other dailies and onslaughts.
Feilbocan- Scatheran Forest
Saint Taranis - Gedlo Badlands
Bailghol - Xarthmire
Thedeor's Spear - Ashenfell
Planar Defense Force - Planar Assaults (AI) with a daily in Alittu on the 2nd floor in the main building.
Mages of Alittu - Planar Assaults, Onslaughts and Crafting Dailies. If you have all of the tradeskills maxed out then you'll hit revered very fast on top of farming the first 2 options.
There's also a Noteriety vendor you can turn in marks to to help boost a specific rep as well.
Each tier of noteriety will give you access to a Fragment Coffer which you can find under the store - Equipment - Fragments. The coffers will give a random chance at getting fragments with higher tiers on them for better stats. You're going to want certain ones depending on your class to itemize your fragment stats as well as you can.
After grabbing enough Marks of Prophecyto upgrade your epic pieces, then you should be spending your tower fragments on on boxes to itemize your fragments. It's not worth using them to buy dungeon gear right away as you'll have more than enough time to get the pieces you need from dungeons still and even if you don't have 1-2 pieces by the time you get your reps maxed out then you'll have more than enough marks saved up for both anyway.
Greater and Lesser Essences
There's a few ways to get essences and each of those options will drop essences with RNG stats. You of course want to aim for the best in slot ones and the ones with the highest base main stat roll.
Ashenfell Major Rifts (505 Main Stat) - These will drop green quality essences which are going to be very decent until you're able to get better.
Queen's Foci
Lesser (520 Main Stat) - Final Upgrade is 549 main stat.
Greater (550 Main Stat) - Final Upgrade is 592 main stat.
Check for you class BIS lists to look at which ones to aim for.
Planar Fragment Guides
In Depth Guide from Ghar Station
Give the guide a read first just to get a general understanding how fragments work. Keep in mind that Brasse has stated revamps on the system are in the works and will be coming out over the next several months. The details of these changes are still unknown as of 7/3/2017.
Planar Fragment Best in Slot List - To select your own class and role, just make a copy under file at the top. Once you do that it will let you select by class under the appropriate tab.
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Originally Posted by Aedynn 
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