As far as playing Rift goes, I have a lot of sympathy with Hawley’s position which is that he’d play it if his friends did. In any case, like I say, looking forwards to trying it again at the next test.

And yeah, I think this time I’ll go the warlock/ necromancer route (like half the server who wasn’t playing healers )

It is a general problem: Respeccing is easy, you can buy up to four roles… but you are stuck with your first two soul choices from level 6 to level 18.

Guess what, My Reaver/Warlord/Riftblade combo at level 18 sucked as well. Bad choice, bad luck…

Reaver was okay, Warlord useless, Riftblade also bad and a bad pairing (thought it would work, but probably only works with the Paragon as combo). Later I tested Paladin, the “good” tank equivalent of the “Death Knight” tank style Reaver. Guess what, I think Paladin is better or at least more to my liking after only playing till level 6… lots of reactive Shield Bashes.

They have to find a solution for this… give people a training area where they can experiment with the various souls of their calling. Justicar was also not what I expected. And that Inquisitors who both have power about life and death have no single weak heal was also a bit unexpected.

Tipa and you experienced yourselves that Rogues fall behind souls of other callings. This can REALLY piss off people. From the vague and very poetic descriptions nobody can make much sense without extensive website and forum research. Maybe that’s the downside of the system. For it also offers a lot of variety once one has a bunch of souls to switch between.

I recommend you to read “The Way of Kings” by Brandon Sanderson, the same guy that took over WoT after Jordan’s death. It has huge potential. Maybe it can be compared to Guild Wars 2? :>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gemmell
This one is my favorite author. He is already dead, but his works are still being published. Maybe he can be compared to Ultima Online?

The book comparison makes sense, but I am afraid it only goes so far… I have a hard time describing why I feel I won’t play this in the end while thinking it is really good at the same time.

I found it very interesting how many “This reminds me of (insert EVERY MMO you know and some more!!!)” discussions popped up in zone chat. This is not uncommon actually, but it was *extreme* on Wolfsbane!

I would like to quote Spinks:
“I do wonder whether “you’ll love it if you like that type of thing” is the best thing you can say about a new game, or the worst …”

2011 is going to become an interesting year for MMO gamers. Rift, SWTOR, GW2, TERA, …

It may be that Rifts have solved this in their design, but just the thought of having to make that choice again dismays me.

I think that’ll help players tweak things to suit their playstyle (or the weakness of a particular soul). In Beta 1 I played a Reaver/Void Knight and had a melee class with no self-heals and down time was starting to be an issue when the beta ended. I knew when I got my 3rd soul I’d look for something with some healing capability, but it felt like a long slog from level 5 (iirc the point where you pick soul 2, at which time you still don’t have a great feel for soul 1) and level 18 when you get your 3rd soul.

So hopefully under the new system we’ll be adding a 3rd soul by level 10 or so, in order to fill in any bits of our character that isn’t sitting well with us.