New To Rift - Feels Overwhelming, Where Do I Start?

[Cybrok]

So I made it to 65 a while back and I've been seriously considering getting back into the game. But as mentioned it seems like there's a LOT to take in. That being said, I've compiled a list of questions that if anyone could answer, I would be greatly appreciative. (There will be comparisons to wow to help explain my questions)



- I'm level 65 right now, where do I start to get to 70?

- After hitting max, I heard that you need to get your Eternal Weapon, what is that? How do I do that? How do I level it up?

- Once I have my weapon, how do I gear? (In wow you typically go from Heroic Dungeons and World Quests to Mythic Dungeons to Mythic+ and LFR raids, and then into the premade group raids/guilds.)

- How do you judge how good someone's gear is? Is there something similar to item level from wow?

- How much gear (like a certain item level or something) do I need for each new piece of content? Dungeons, heroic dungeons, raid(s).

- Are mechanics for raid bosses in this game complex? Can I expect to be spending dozens, and rarely hundreds of attempts for higher difficulties? Or are they pushovers?

-What are some resources to figure out the best/viable builds for my class, along with their rotations/stats, etc? Are there DPS simulations? Logs?



This is all that comes to my head right off the bat but I'll add more if I think of any. Thanks a ton in advance to any answers ^^

[Skiye]

To go from 65 to 70 you'd go to the celestial lands. There's a porticulum near the crafting Hall in tempest bay where General Batua will have you go to Alitu. From there you'll get your new quests.

The eternal weapon questgiver is outside Alitu.

The last zone in the celestial lands will get you enough hit on your gear to run the first LFR level raid TDEz. You'll get your 275 hit gear from there. You can run expert dungeons if you like but you'll do 25 as part of your eternal weapon upgrade process anyway.

In general you can judge gear by it's hit value. 275= LFR 300 = T1 325= t2

I can't recall hit values but I think it's 2000 for LFR. It's on the hit tooltip on your character screen.

Raid mechanics aren't much different from WoW. Some fights are more complex than others. Jump this, stand here, don't stand there. Etc.

There are DPS meter add ons for this game. Riftmeter is a popular one. There's also King Boss Mod for raid mechanics. For builds, macros, rotations, etc check the guides section on these forums.

There's also target dummies outside Alitu to test stuff out. When you feel more at home you can also put dummies in your personal dimension if you like.

Raiders often post raid logs on prancingturtle.com, but riftmeter can break down your DPS and healing pretty deeply.

[forbiddenlake]

- I'm level 65 right now, where do I start to get to 70?
Port to Alittu on the Celestial Lands. You don't need a breadcrumb, but there is one at the Cometary Porticulum in Tempest Bay, which is near the crafting area (not across the bridge).

- After hitting max, I heard that you need to get your Eternal Weapon, what is that? How do I do that? How do I level it up?
At 70, get it just outside of Alittu. It comes with quests; do them to level it up.

- Once I have my weapon, how do I gear? (In wow you typically go from Heroic Dungeons and World Quests to Mythic Dungeons to Mythic+ and LFR raids, and then into the premade group raids/guilds.)
Level up your eternal
At the same time, get a crafted planar helm and ranged, and level them up (alt+left click to see requirements). Fully leveled up, these slots are BiS
Some other slots can be crafted and are between world and expert tier
Do Queen's Foci (baby's first raid) and Cracking Xarth's Skull to work towards the seal on the vendor at Camp Quagmire. Get the QF weekly quest from an NPC at the same camp. This can be accelerated with alts. The seal is outclassed by seasonal events which I assume you missed.
Get your Celestial faction rep up (finish the story and do the dailies)
Level up your good planar fragments. This will cost a lot of plat. Here is a fragment spreadsheet - see the byClass tab for which fragments are good in which slot. I would spend your Tower Fragments on fragment boxes, not on expert gear
Finish the Vostigar Peaks story and do its dailies and weeklies in Utilla for Captured Intel. Spend Captured Intel on the trinket (Omnox, at least for melee DPS) and the Commander jewelry, and on upgrading this and T2 gear
Do Daily Raid Rifts for planar essences
Get a synergy crystal or 3 from the store. There's one for single target DPS, AOE DPS, tanking, single target healing, and AOE healing.

Do experts for expert-tier gear
Do LFR (Tartaric Depths) for LFR tier gear. Don't forget the weekly quest on the top floor of Alittu.
Do T1 raids (TD normal mode and Intrepid Rise of the Phoenix) for T1 gear. Spend your Ethereal Shards on this tier from the store
Do T2 raid (Bastion of Steel) for T2 gear and Legion Datagrams
Buy T2 gear with Datagrams from the store.

Keep doing the weeklies and pick Datagrams.
Assuming seasonal events still happen and you stick around, each festival usually has a BiS or close to BiS item you can earn with festival currency.

- How do you judge how good someone's gear is? Is there something similar to item level from wow?
Yes but it's hidden. More main stat is better, and generally more hit is better. There's no displayed gear score.

- How much gear (like a certain item level or something) do I need for each new piece of content? Dungeons, heroic dungeons, raid(s).
Hit is the hard requirement: hover over Hit on your character sheet. Soft requirements depend on your group.

- Are mechanics for raid bosses in this game complex? Can I expect to be spending dozens, and rarely hundreds of attempts for higher difficulties? Or are they pushovers?
Depends on the tier and your group. Experts and LFR are trivial for most people these days. The T2 raid is easy for the top people, but then you have for example me and my guild, who only recently got back to the final boss of the BoS, which we have not yet cleared. In over a year.

-What are some resources to figure out the best/viable builds for my class, along with their rotations/stats, etc? Are there DPS simulations? Logs?
These official forums have guide forums, sometimes there's a compendium sticky. There are training dummies in the world and in people's dimensions. For raid logs there' Prancing Turtle and Top of Rift.

[Bamul]

-What are some resources to figure out the best/viable builds for my class, along with their rotations/stats, etc? Are there DPS simulations? Logs?

For a quick overview of the current meta you can check here.

[catonmylap]

For a quick overview of the current meta you can check here.

Just beware that those numbers from the spreadsheet above are for some of the best players in the best gear with near perfect support. Don't get discouraged -- it's just the bar to aspire to. ;)

Questing is definitely the way to go for several reasons: notoriety, access to zone chronicles for currency and notoriety, faster leveling than Celestial Adventures (CA's), etc.

But CA's are there and even worth doing from time to time. Mostly, perhaps, to practice other roles: Learn a tank role, a healer role, even a support role, and practice them in IA's. You can build those extra roles at every level, don't have to wait to 70. That makes the game more interesting for you, teaches you what drives tanks and healers nuts, and will make you much more valuable and able to get into groups.

Get into a guild that will allow and encourage multiple roles, and also answer many of these questions as they come up.

Right now, for the next two weeks (thru Nov 8), do the Autumn Harvest event to get the level 70 neckpiece -- even if you're not level 70 yet, this should be a priority. That neckpiece will be your best piece of gear for quite a while, so it's worth grabbing now. Start in your home city (Meridian for Defiant, Sanctum for Guardian) and take all the quests where you see people in a big crowd (gathering free artifacts): Gloamwood IA's for signets (you can even make up the lost week), and then the others for ambersap. Most of them are repeatable every day.