New Premade Class Templates (Opinions)

[miguksaram]

After reading about some of the recent changes released with 1.7 I decided to give rift another go. I am curious to hear from some veterans of their opinions of the new premade class templates. Do you feel the builds are optimal for their intended purposes? Are these builds based on tried and true specs put together originally from the player base or did Trion try to create what they thought would be the most effective builds? I'm mostly just curious what the community thinks about this new feature and how effective it will be for new and/or existing players. Thanks!

[kaco]

I am sure a lot of vets will say they are not optimal. They are designed for new players to have a path to follow as they level up and get used to abilities

[lgw]

Not optimal is putting it mildly.
A bunch of them are outright crap, up to purposely detrimental recommendations like what spells to use etc.

Worse, people will use them and understand even less understand if you tell them X is better than Y, cause "but Trion said otherwise..."

Why are game designers so often so bad at their own games ?!

[Tristaynia]

Because they spend 10 hours a day writing new content for all of us instead of sitting at home playing the game non stop?

[lgw]

Because they spend 10 hours a day writing new content for all of us instead of sitting at home playing the game non stop?

Redicolous strawman.

Content designers =/= class, combat, PVP, ... designer.
Also... user feedback.

Balance matters in MMOs -- if I just want pretty content, there's a bunch of solo RPGs out there.

[Traciatim]

They should have held a class/role design contest and stuck the top two voted on for each role (2 tanks, 2 DPS for warriors, a list a mile long for clerics . . . etc). Though that doesn't help with the other problem and thats:

They took level 50 specs and didn't respec as you level so some of the low level choices. How many level 50 specs are viable if you only have 15 points to spend?

[lgw]

They took level 50 specs and didn't respec as you level so some of the low level choices. How many level 50 specs are viable if you only have 15 points to spend?

Crap in Mage builds that I could see in the 1min glance before going to work:
* Recommending Pyros to spam Ignite.
* 0p Ele instead of 0p Archon or even 0p Dom.
* Some seriously insane "elemental Mage" combination, that survives nothing, does low damage and has serious problems at lower levels.

And there are a bunch of good levevling specs for say Mages, that just work as well at 50...
Take Necro/Lock/Archo... start pushing Necro till at least greater pet, maybe even deeper depending on taste, then start filling up Lock. *BAM* killerbuild at low levels, decent for leveling, strong solo, viable at any level, even good for low rank PVP and experts / entry raiding at 50.
How about adding that age old yet still good build ?

[Tufelhunden]

They should have held a class/role design contest and stuck the top two voted on for each role (2 tanks, 2 DPS for warriors, a list a mile long for clerics . . . etc). Though that doesn't help with the other problem and thats:

They took level 50 specs and didn't respec as you level so some of the low level choices. How many level 50 specs are viable if you only have 15 points to spend?

This right here is a winner. At low levels a druid build is awesome. At higher levels, lolwaut.

[nemecis]

checked them out out of curiosity ... garbage all around. Wouldn't recommend a single of the Warrior builds.

Also had a guildie come back from several months abscence. Started asking me questions based on these templates and I ended up giving him this advice .. "ignore those suggestions".

Not helpful at all Trion - the potential is there, but you've missed the boat.

[Fangthane]

It was a noble attempt - maybe not fully there yet.

Trion had a few obstacles, not the least of which being the "build for all levels, with no intended reset" constraint they instituted. No one (should) actually go all the way to level 50 without a redistribution at some point. Some of the branch 1 point recommendations are all about higher levels, for example, and are not at all optimal for starting.

Another obstacle - designing for the changes that were intended for 1.7, since these would never be available for 1.6 builds. And by intended, I am suggesting the team working on these was not the same team(s) making the last minute "changes to everything" that occurred. I doubt they had time to revamp these suggestions last minute.

And finally, they'd want to have a little bit of their own signature on these, even if it meant a spent point was questionable. Not need of providing ammunition for the "I build this spec. Trion should hire me!" crowd.

All in all, they are not perfect, but should serve a newbie well (remember they nerfed starting area NPC's somewhat). Most people, when they truly get engaged, will want to take over the soul builds for themselves. I still consider it the crown jewel of Rift. Certainly no one stepping into a raid will still be using an unmodified Purpose, with all the min/maxers barking in their ears.

[nemecis]

I'm actually curious to see how these evolve. In 1, 2, 3 patches down the road, will these suggestions be the same? Or will Trion take into account changes and maintain these suggestions going forward?

[Narfalicious]

I didn't look at the specifics, but a glace at the cleric specs (xx/xx/xx) looked decent to me. Didn't see recommended rotations though.

[Scarchasm]

I'm actually curious to see how these evolve. In 1, 2, 3 patches down the road, will these suggestions be the same? Or will Trion take into account changes and maintain these suggestions going forward?

knowing trion they will 'bugfix' the abilities in every class to make sure they ARE the optimal builds at level 50 in upcoming patches

[peluxrift]

Another silly thing about the premade specs is that they don't even satisfy the role requirements. At lvl 23 using the "Flame Keeper" Healer spec, I can't queue as a healer?

[Kysiel]

I didn't look at the specifics, but a glace at the cleric specs (xx/xx/xx) looked decent to me. Didn't see recommended rotations though.

agreed, the cleric ones aren't terrible.