A raider's case against PAs

[Adastra]

just like blizzard Trion failed to factor in the sociological aspects of an MMO in their game design.. if pa's give any advantage...and yes after enough of them they give a huge advantage...they will be *required* for raiding...

I agree with this. Especially if they design encounters (dps and hp/gear checks) around live parses (where PA is a factor). Although, I assume they probably do some internal testing with 0 PA and have the NDA testers test with 0 PA as well and attempt to balance it around that. Having only a few people in raid with maxed out (useful) PA hexes may not make a big difference, but if you have all 20 people maxed out, it could be significant enough to reduce the challenge of an encounter.

On the upside, I guess Trion designed the stat bonuses from PA ignore any % increases from souls/buffs so the effect won't be as problematic.

[cokronk]

as every PVE raid based MMO has shown..its irrelivant what the content is designed around.. it becomes what the player base wants so they can plow the road as fast as they can...
its the same that happened with wow... its not what content is designed around..its what people want the gear/level/etc to be to make the run idiot proof.

just like blizzard Trion failed to factor in the sociological aspects of an MMO in their game design.. if pa's give any advantage...and yes after enough of them they give a huge advantage...they will be *required* for raiding...

just like the discussion about this subject before they were emplimented...what is happening now is exactly what me and many others said would happen and were shouted down...

heres a few words of wisdom... doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome is the verry definition of stupiity.

The actual quote is:

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results."

I don't grind levels for PA at all. Our guild doesn't require a certain level of AA's. Some people just get too worried about things.

[Fractus]

People need to chill out with the grinding. Although i would rather there be more costumes, etc stuff in there. For healing having max pa is pointless but for rogues and warriors the weapon increases do quite a bit. Also, for everyone having 600 hp and 12 fire and earth resist is potentially going to be mandatory for some fights without making things hard for yourself.

[KniteFlux]

Although I do not disagree with anything in the original post, that is my hardcore raider side speaking. I'm a casual gamer now, and even though that tank with awesome PA is easier to heal through a tough fight, I find the fun in the challenge.

And to speak to the speed of power leveling and gearing in Rift, I just had a few friends join Rift. In the first month after joining I helped them, playing three sessions a week, hit 50. And in the first day after hitting 50, I had them in full crafted sets and nearly all remaining pieces in Dungeon T1 gear. That was a week ago that this day happened. They are already ready for Master dungeons, and entrance level Slivers and Raids. Again, sure one of them is a tank and it is obvious that he doesn't have as much apparent HP as our senior tank in the guild, but he's good enough that he's capable of tanking these tough fights. None of us mind that he has less PA or that we die a few more times.

Now all that being said, I've appreciated all the ways out there to catch up on your PA that have been added. For people that haven't made it into a raiding guild, they can get their Dungeon T2 gear quickly and start buying 100k PA experience and getting a few of these from completing quests as well. Also, the +50% PA days are great.

Although there are these additions to gain PA faster, I still feel like they are lacking. These are indirect methods to try to "catch up." I would like to see something added to Rift that was explicitly for the purpose of gaining PA. For instance it could be a daily quest or quest chain with PA rewards (that does not take place in instances of sort). What I would like to see above all else would be a chronicle, expert, and master that was explicitly designed for PA gain. Rather than getting normal random dungeon rewards, it would give PA rewards.