Do the Wave

One more day. That’s right, just one more day till patch 1.3 comes out. The Spoils of War event, if you can call it that, is almost over. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve been enjoying the 1.2 events, but it was kind of lackluster. I was able to get lots of blue and green artifacts, and crafting tokens along with a bunch of crafting plaques. So it wasn’t a total let down. Now here’s what I’m trying to figure out. 1.2 was supposed to a prelude to something that seemed to be earth and fire related. 1.3 is all about water and death though. So my question is, is 1.4 going to be the major event that 1.2 was the prelude to, or are we never going to see what it was leading up to. My only complaint about 1.2 would be the level requirement to be able to have gotten the gritty kitty pet, I didn’t get to 45 in time to try to get it, which kinda stinks.
So I finally hit 40 over the weekend and got my copper “steam punk pony”! Good bye slow poke mutant turtle, you served me well. I have to admit I really do love the quasi-steam punk look of the Defiant.
Speaking of steam punk, I wonder if there’s a certain combination of gear I could set up under the wardrobe to give me a steam punk look. I’m gonna have to look in to that this weekend, it could be something fun to do with a feature that I don’t use that often.
Oh, and yes I am also still working on Druid and Elemental Summoner portions for the class guide, so don’t worry. So until next time don’t forget to reload, so you don’t run out of ammo.

Quest Lines and Guides

Ok, the pet guide is coming along slowly. I ran in to a problem when I did the Necromancer portion. My necro wasn’t at level 32 yet, so I didn’t have any first hand experience woth the higher abilites. So I am currently working to get both my Druid and Elemental Summoner both to 32 so I can get a better feel for the classes.
So it could be a bit before I get the next two portions up and running. After that, I’m going to do a general run down of each of the pets themselves and their abilites.
I’m sure by now everyone has done at least one story quest. For those of you that haven’t, or aren’t familiar with them, the story quests advance the plot in the zone you’re in, and in the game. I love that it feels like it’s advancing the game in the process. They are really a nice change of pace from the standard just kill 10 rats kinda quests that are just sorta there. As you progress through each zone’s story line, it also changes the loading screens as you go. The whole thing gives you a feeling of acomplishment, like you’re actually making a difference. Not to mention the story quests are actually pretty good.
So until next time don’t forget to reload, so you don’t run out of ammo.

To Mod or Not To Mod, That Is the Question

Recently Trion made a big announcement concerning mods for Rift. From what they implied, we might see the API codes released for the mod community as soon as patch 1.3.
This has brought a mixed reaction from the Rift community.
Mods are one of those things that people either love or hate, and both sides extremely passionate about it. Those against it say that mods are a crutch. It ruins the game, and sets everything to autopilot. Those that are for mods say they help cut down on micromanagement and help to make the game more manageable and fun to play.
Now I see the validity of both sides of the argument.
The anti-moders do have valid points. There has been several mods that more or less put the game on autopilot. Decursive from Vanilla WoW was a prime example. It would target cursed players and cast the appropriate removal spell. There was another one in Wrath that would allow you to draw your own markings in game that could be used to show you where to go during any event. Mods for PvP that would show you any and all information about enemy players that made it a no brainer to figure out who to kill. Mods like these kill the game. They turn it from playing the game, to just reacting to the mods. Now there are also mods that are considered essential to raiding. DBM, Omen, Damage meters these are just a few of the core mods in a raider’s UI. DBM, while useful, trains people to watch the mods only, and not what’s happening in the fight. Omen also trains you to ignore what you’re doing, and only watch for the red flash.
Now on the other end are pro-modders. Bag mods, mail mods, bar mods and the like. They make character management easier. Mods like DBM, Omen, and damage meters can all be used to help people learn what to look for in fights. By watching for the alarms, you correlate what’s happening and what to do in those situations.
Now for myself, I do like some mods, and I used a lot of mods while raiding. I loved Arc-HUD, it gave a very easy to view, and detailed way, to see my health, energy, pet’s health and mob’s health right around my toon. I used a mail mod that would let me open all my mail at once, and had a drop down box with the names in of people I’ve sent mail to. I used Auctioneer. It made buying and selling easier to sort by price, and made breaking down stacks easier too. I used Comix for a long time just for laughs.
I’m not against Mods, I’ve used a lot of Mods in the past, and I’ll use them again. Some are useful, some aren’t. As long as they don’t make Mods that break the game, I’m all for them. See in my option, Mods are a tool, and like any tool some are good, others aren’t. So until next time don’t forget to reload, so you don’t run out of ammo.

Things That Go Bump In the Night, Or the Necromancer

Creepy dead things. That describes the Necromancer, or just the Necro, to a tea. The master of the undead, raising the bones of old, all the while draining the life from the enemy. So let’s see what we can dig up on our grave robbing friends.
Root Ability
Summon Skeletal Horror 0 pts: Summons a skeleton to fight for you. This is your first DPS pet.
Revivify 4 pts: Channels energy in to your pet, restoring 10% of its health every second for 8 seconds. Consumes charge. Your basic ZOMG FLUFFYS GONNA DIE!!! Heal spell.
Essence Link 10 pts; Reduces healing on target by 30% for 60 seconds. When your pet hits do damage, you are healed for 9. Yet another ability to keep us alive through our pets.
Summon Skeletal Stalwart 12 pts: Summons a skeletal warrior to fight for you. This is your basic tanking pet.
Exhume 16 pts: Reduces the casting time of your next summon by 15 seconds. This is our instapet ability.
Summon Shadow Revenant 26 pts: Summons an undead Mage to your aid. This is another DPS for us, this time we get a caster.
Death’s Grip 32 pts: Stuns the enemy for 3 seconds. For the next 60 seconds when your pet damages them, their speed is reduced 30% for 3 seconds. Good for making a fast get away in PvP.
Mass Grave 51 pts: Summons an uncontrollable level 50 zealot and revenant for 30 seconds. Lots of high DPS pets running amuck killing for you.
Getting to the Roots
Most if our root abilities are summoning abilities, or deal with healing us or Fluffy. Picking the right pet at the right time can make all the difference in the world. Exhume can help you switch out from one to another on the fly as needed.
Branch Abilities
Death’s Ally T1 5/5: Increases yours and you pet’s death based damage by 5%. A flat out boost to DPS plain and simple.
Fresh Graves T2 5/5: Increases Soul Rend’s damage by 25% per stack of Deathly Calling. Grave Touch reduces damage to pet by 10% for 10 seconds, and has a 100% chance to deal 50% more if target has Necrosis. Yet another ability that will boost our pet’s DPS.
Symbiote T3 5/5: Increases healing from Essence Link by 30%. More self healing for us, means less our healers have to worry about us.
Life Bane T4 5/5: Increases pet’s damage by 2% per point in the Necromancer tree. The more points we put in this tree, the more damage our pet does.
Detonate Bone T4 3/3: When your pet dies, it has a 100% chance to explode stunning nearby enemies for 2 seconds and dealing damage equal to 10% of the pet’s health. Fluffy becomes a suicide bomber. The more HP Fluffy has, the bigger the bang.
Soul Purge T4 1/1: Channels deadly into the enemy doing 431 damage over 8 seconds, and heals you and your pet for 593 health. Consumes charge. Yet another way to help your healer, by keeping you and Fluffy alive.
Ancient Tomb T5 1/1: Summon an undead rogue. He’s a DPS pet plain and simple.
Master Chirurgen T5 5/5: Increase pet’s health by 50%. More health means Fluffy stays around.
Vengeful Spirit T6 3/3: Increases the number of stacks of Deathly Calling converted by pet’s Blood Corruption by 3, and gives BC a 100% chance to not consume stacks of DC. Oblivion has a 100% to interrupt to spell casting. Ruination’s damage is increased by 9% per stack of DC. More damage and utility for your pet.
Clattering Bones T6 1/1: Bone Shatter reduces pet’s incoming damage by 6%. Blood Spike’s critical damage is increased by 150%, and increases cool down reduction by 1.5 seconds. Even more pet DPS and utility for Fluffy.
Lich Form T7 1/1: Turns you in to a Lich for 30 seconds. Increases your mana regeneration by 20%, damage by 20%, and pet’s damage by 30%. The final form. We become an undead ourselves.
Pulling it all together
DPS, DPS, and more DPS. Our branch ability are all about boosting both ours and our pet’s health and DPS. Everywhere you look in our tree you’ll find talent after talent to boost our health and damage output. All of our talents work together. Master Chirurgen is a huge boost to Detonate Bone. Everything works together to boost other abilities. So until next time don’t forget to reload, so you don’t run out of ammo.