Where Have All the Podcasts Gone?

Podcasts. Podcasts can be a great source of information, fun and a way to share our love of games and other things. I’ve listened to Podcasts for a while, starting with 93.3’s Preston and Steve. From there I started listening to WoW Podcasts. There was a large selection of WoW Podcasts, and I listened to a whole bunch of them.

Then I started playing Rift. I loved it from the beginning, but I wanted to get more. So I started searching for Rift Podcasts. I found several different ones, but then it started.

It started with The Rift podcast. They closed down due to health issues. Then it happened to Rift Watchers. They stopped due to time issues. The most recently one sadly was Player vs Rift. They stopped because Casey, the main guy, got this amazing new mystery job.

Out of those three, I’m going to miss PvR the most. The dynamic between Casey, Joe, and Dave was incredible. That’s the sad news. The good news, is they will be doing another podcast together.

So if you’re looking for some new ones, there are other great ones like Rift Runners, and Rift Riders.

However PvR is still alive through the Player vs Rift guild.

So until next time don’t forget to reload, so you don’t run out of ammo.

A New Place to Call Home

Ok, so I finally finished up my pet class guide. Now what’s next? Well, I’m thinking of doing a guide for the different pets, and what they can do.

So, I haven’t had much time to hop on the game much, but I have gotten a bunch done. I’ve hit 50 on my main Fuzzbaal, and that was a big thing for me. I hit 300 in outfitting, and I’ve made several epic pieces for myself. Fuzz has left Eye of the Manastorm, and I transferred him to Laethys and joined the Player vs Rift guild. My hit is high enough to run T1s, and I almost have enough hit start on T2s. Now, I just need to get the gear to start on those T2s. I’ve been running the event dailies when I can, but due to time issues I haven’t been doing much else.

Speaking of T1s and T2s, and AP and CC, I’ve been playing around with my Ranger spec. I’ve dropped Rift Stalker, reduced the points in Sab, and picked up Marksman. I only went 8 points in MM, so I could get the bonus to hit with ranged weapons.

I really want to run AP, so I can start on The Water Saga quest line. I want that croc mount. The quest line looks easy enough, but as a Defiant I have to get to the end of AP to find the Faceless Man, but hey what can you do.

The other thing I’ve been doing is gathering crafting rift lures. I have 4 saved up so far. What I need to do, when I finally get some free time, is see if I can get people together to go and do a bunch of crafting rifts.

So until next time don’t forget to reload, so you don’t run out of ammo.

Captain Planet, or the Elemental Summoner

Earth, air, water, and fire. Their power is yours to command. The elemental summoner is the master of all of them. With a flick of the wrist you call forth the elements to do your bidding. With pets designed to tank, PvP, and burn down our enemies. So let’s dig in to the roots and see what we have.

0 pts. Summon Lesser Earth Elemental: Calls forth an earth elemental to fight for you. This is your tank pet, he’s here to take a beating for you.
12 pts. Summon Lesser Air Elemental: Calls forth an air elemental to fight for you. He’s your DPS pet, he’s here to blast things for you.
16 pts. Quicken Elements: Heals your pet for 5% of its’ health every second for 5 seconds. When Fluffy is taking a beating, this will fix him up in no time.
18 pts. Fast Summon: Reduces the casting time and cost by 100% for your next summon spell for 15 seconds. When you need to get Fluffy back fast, this is what you want.
26 pts. Summon Greater Water Elemental: Calls forth a water elemental to fight for you. He’s your PvP pet, with slows to keep the other guy from smacking you.
38 pts. Sever Bonds: Breaks all control and movement based spell effects on you and your pet. Rooted, slowed, feared, or confused, this will snap you both out of it.
51 pts. Swarming Flame: Summons 5 fire elementals to assist you for 5 seconds. So you get 5 flaming guys who come out and start blasting away at your target.

Ok, so most of our root abilities are summons based or related to summoning. We get our insta-pet and pet healing abilities from here also. We only get one damage ability though, and that’s the swarming flame ability.

Now that we’ve seen what we have to build upon, let’s take a look and see what’s up in our talent tree.

Velocity T1 5/5: Your crystalline missile has a 50% chance to debuff the target, increasing your pet’s damage by 50% for 10 seconds. A basic debuff that you should always try to keep on your target.
Elemental Link T2 5/5: Reduces damage you take by 10%, increases air elemental damage by 10%, and reduces damage done to your earth elemental by 10%. You take less damage and Fluffy either hits harder or takes less damage.
Ashen Armor T3 3/3: Ignite increases your pet’s crit chance by 30%. Fluffy will hit harder more often.
Sacrifice T4 1/1: Sacrifices your pet to heal you for 25% of your total health. Fluffy give his life to heal you. Don’t worry though, he’ll be right back with Fast Summons.
Improved Quicken Elements T4 2/2: Increases healing done by Quicken Elements by 20%. Fluffy gets better faster.
Weathered T4 5/5: Increases pet’s health by 50%. If Fluffy has more life, Fluffy will last longer.
Greater Elemental Affinity T5 1/1: Allows you to summon either a greater earth or greater air elemental. This allows you to summon a bigger, badder, version of your elemental, with more abilities than the lesser versions.
Force Of Nature T5 5/5: Increases your pet’s damage by 2% per point spent in the elemental tree. The more you spend here, the bigger the smack down Fluffy gives out.
Planar Expansion T6 5/5: Increases the damage done by your air and water elementals by 10%, water elemental’s Mind Freeze lasts 2.5 seconds longer, Electrify’s SP buff by 25%, and your earth elemental’s Thud reduces incoming damage by 20% for 10 seconds. More outgoing damage, less incoming damage, better buffs and debuffs. What more can you ask for?
Synergize T6 1/1: You gain 3 charges whenever your pet does damage for 30 minutes. More charges faster. You can use those charge based spells that much quicker.
Intensify Elements T7 1/1: Your damage is increased by 50%, and your pet’s damage is increased by 100% for 15 seconds. Major damage boost for 15 seconds. You and Fluffy will nuke like mad.

We get all kinds of talents to boost Fluffy’s health and damage. We get a boost through some of our talents along the way also.

Now there are several souls that go nicely with the Elemental Summoner. The big one is chloro. Chloro’s healing, along with our pets, make for a never ending stream of health for you and Fluffy. If you want a more damage heavy pairing, it with pyro or warlock. Need support for your support spec? The greater air elemental can add some extra punch to the extra punch that you provide.

So as you can the elemental summoner is a versatile soul that can pair with any other Mage soul. Be it leveling, healing, support or soloing, you will never be alone as long as you have command of the elements.

So until next time don’t forget to reload, so you don’t run out of ammo.