Changing the Game up! Rift: Planes of Telera
Chances are many of you have not heard much at all about Rift: Planes of Telara by Trion Worlds. I know this, as I just found out about it a month ago, and have followed it since then. I do know that the readers here at Horde Review do love some WoW and some MMOs. With that in mind, Bless allowed me the opportunity to fill you on what you have been missing out on.
Disclaimer: Reading from here on out could potentially add another addiction to your life.
This article is essentially my first effort at not only introducing a new game to our readers, but also driven towards providing you guys with hope. Hope that there is another game that seems similar to WoW, but offers a whole lot more. Hope that what you love about WoW is not exclusive to just that game. Hope that there may be something better than what I now call World of Borecraft.
Rift: Planes of Telara is a new MMO coming soon(Q1 2011) made by Trion Worlds, as of yet an unproven name in the industry. Rest easy my friends, as Trion is exec headed by the great Scott Hartsman, who has experience being a lead guy dating back to EQ1 and working through many expansions in EQ2. This is where he left SOE, and forged out on his own. Last year, he became a part of the Trion team and has been explosive ever sense. Here are a couple interviews I found on him talking about Rift. You have to admire a guy who is this passionate about his work and what he creates.
Scott Hartsman & TenTonHammer interview pt 1
Scott Hartsman & TenTonHammer interview pt 2
Clearly, this Trion team is not to be taken lightly. Many of the their members hail from over a dozen different MMOs. Everything from UO, to DAOC, to EQ and even WAR. Granted these MMOs where not the critical success that WOW was, they still garnered thousands and millions of subscribers.
Their vision is simple: Imagine taking the best elements of every MMO, the things that gamers love, and put them into a game based on a system built from the ground up to offer dynamic content and options to players. Throwing all these ingredients into the cauldron of Creation gave them Rift. Lemme tell you what guys, let them cook it up! Everything I’ve seen/read so far has been tasty, and I plan to share it with you.
Dynamic Content
I first ask what you would consider as dynamic content. Based on the traditional mmo formula, I would say dynamic content could be changes in the environment or game that are based on events. Some examples would be the AQ attack on Silithus when that patch was released, the invasion of Undercity during the pre-wotlk patch, or even the “zoning” effects you currently see in zones like Icecrown(where players see parts of a zone based on how far in a questline they are). Those are honestly a more static version of dynamic content. Sure, they may change the game world and/or how you view it, but they normally only change once and for a limited time.
Imagine a world where these type of events take place on regular basis. Imagine just grinding your toon through a zone unsuspectingly coming upon a world event that everyone can take part in. Imagine if these type of events not only occurred in your zone, but throughout the entire game and often. Imagine if you got bonus loot from them based on your contributions within the event. Imagine how that would affect your game experience.
Now, one of the more significant events RIFT touches upon is called the Rift system. What happens is one of these “tears” opens in the world randomly. You see a vortex of distortion start ripping through your game world. At that point, you can either choose to open the rift yourself, go through the rift(speculation at this point), or turn the rift on your opposing faction.(I’ll touch more on that later) At the very least, NPC minions of a specific alignment or plane start making their way through the portal that opens. This is where the fun starts.
There are 6 planes that are fighting to take over the world of Telara. They are air, water, fire, earth, life and death. One of their methods of invasion is opening a rift in order to besiege the game world. What’s great, is that these alignments all hate each other.
So for the sake of arguement, we’ll say the death plane is causing a tear in Telara. All agents and monstrosities of death will make their way out of the portal. They will eventually drive away or engage in combat with local inhabitants. They will attempt to conquer any cities or towns nearby. All the while, the effects of the death rift spread around the game world like cancer ever steadily in any direction. What used to look like a quiet forest now resembles a dark pit with giant tentacles writhing about. The rift systems affect the game world in real time.
Excited yet? No? How bout these rift events are social world events. Not in a group at the time? It’s ok. You get a quest as you engage within proximity of the rift. While engaging in the event, you accumulate “contribution pts” of some sort to gauge your involvement with the event. Once the rift is sealed, you will receive a reward based on how well you performed. Essentially, if you just sit back in awe, flabbergas
ted at how this brilliant design works for most of the event, you will likely get less contribution pts. However, if you charge in and relentlessly bring assault to death’s doorstep, you’ll likely get a better reward for your efforts. Regardless of your actions, you will be rewarded with a quest completion just for being part of the event.
These rifts can also take over towns. They will kill npc quest givers, trainers and the like. In which point, those npc’s will have a respawn timer and npc’s will have to rebuild part of the world that was desecrated. Needless to say, I don’t think many of us would idly stand by as a rift destroys our territory.
Not only will these rifts attack everything around them, but they will attack each other. None of these planes like each other. Fire will fight Earth. Life will fight water. I watched a video where Russ Brown, VP of Development, was talking about a scenario involving himself near 2 fighting rifts. He said he chose to side with fire to beat death, only to turn on fire in the end and defeat it as well. This choice to make the rifts hate each other was largely attributed to balancing out the system. I can’t imagine it would fun trying to travel anywhere when rifts where incessantly growing out of control.
This rift system is only part of the dynamic content they envision. Imagine just trotting around on your mount and encountering a rare NPC that sells exclusive and extravagant wares. This NPC may only be around for an hour or maybe even 15 min. He may only be seen once every other week or even month. Something like maybe a blacksmith making his way home to craft armor, and you stop him along the way. Speaking to him, you discover he doesn’t get around those parts much and allows you to view his rare merchandise. That is part of the dynamic content that Trion is trying to present. Things that change up the pace.
Class System
This is by far one of the most exciting aspects of Rift. Their class system is very unique and allows for near infinite customization. I’ll start by explaining things from a wow players’ perspective. Imagine if you could combine the fury tree of a dps warr with the beastmaster tree of a hunter. How about the resto druid combined with disc priest. Or having a sub rogue with great ranged attacks. Their class system allows you mix and match with a variety of different arch-type classes to create something that you love.
How this works is through what Trion calls “the ascended soul system“. When you make your way into the world upon creating a new character, you are an ascended soul. A warrior of old brought back to reclaim Telara and purge it of these ominous forces invading. When you ascend, you chose a calling. There are 4 callings you can choose from. They are Warrior, Rogue, Cleric, and Mage. Which calling you choose affects which souls will be available to you either immediately or further into the game. Each calling currently has 8 souls linked to it.
Think of these souls as talent trees. At level cap in Rift(level 50), you can have 3 different “trees”, that you can distribute points into. They have what are called “branches” and “roots”. Divided into 2 sections, the branches grow upward and are essentially talents. The roots grow downward as you distribute points into the branches. The more points you put into the branches, the more abilities/bonuses you get through the roots. To put it simpler terms, you don’t receive new abilities as you level per se, but you get them as you put points into each branchline.
It may sound complicated, but seeing it in action really brings the system to life. You are no longer stuck with a role. It’s as if you are leveling a mage in wow. You really like some of the heavy damage abilities of the fire tree. Around level 20 or so, you start to enjoy the warlock and the demonology pet system as well. Normally you would have to reroll to have pets as a warlock. What if you didn’t? What if you could have BOTH? What if you could equip a mage fire tree and a warlock demonology class at the same time? You can in RIFT.
You chose your calling and first soul when you create a character. The character creation system is fairly robust, but I won’t touch much on it within this article. Let’s just say, you have alot more options than WoW currently offers.
Upon choosing your calling and first soul, you venture forth into the world. At level 15, you gain access to a 2nd “soul slot’. At this point, if you have accumulated another soul, you can equip it. You can then start putting points into your 2nd soul’s tree to gain abilities from it. You also get your 3rd soul slot at level 30. At that point you have access to 3 total talent trees and can 
distribute your points however you see fit. Each level you get a point. There are 51 points total at level cap.
As you level and explore the world, you will accumulate more souls and can equip them once you have all the slots unlocked. You can also save your “role” slot.(spec). Meaning that you can change your role while out of combat.(a la wow). There will 4 roles you can save to access. From what I understand, these role slots will be purchasable.
Now, you may be thinking that it sounds alot like wow. Yes, it does. But it allows for far more customization as to what your character can/can’t do. In wow, there is only a dual spec. In RIFT, you have twice that and way more options. I’m talking totally new abilities, new tactics, and new play styles.
With each calling, you have 8 souls available. Within that calling, you can only use souls attuned to that particular calling. Essentially, you can’t use souls from a mage calling mixed with souls from a warrior calling. The souls are tied to each respective calling and that is not likely to change. However, you have the freedom to integrate up to 3 arch-types into your role and use your points however you see fit.
The souls available at this time are as follows:
| Warrior Calling
Beastmaster |
Rogue Calling
Assassin |
Cleric Calling
Druid |
Mage Calling
Warlock |
There are a few unannounced souls at this time. Some of the souls I have listed have NOT been confirmed nor are they necessarily the final names. As this is Alpha information only, every aspect of the game is subject to change. I’m sure we’ll learn more about them over the coming weeks. Needless to say, there are alot of different options. Each soul can play completely different from the next. Every role offers something fresh. So basically, you can play whatever you choose to. I personally love the idea of having so many different styles at my fingertips.
This dynamic new way to specialize characters also makes for some interesting theorycrafting. I’m sure some of you may look at a few trees and think “wow, this is going to be really overpowered”. You may be right. At it’s current state(late alpha), the game is surprisingly polished, but there is still a lot of work to do. Yet, part of the core element with this game is the ability to play the game how you want.
Trion has come up front and said they don’t expect the game to be completely balanced. There will be some overpowered compositions with souls, but that is part of the fun. From a flip side, I’m sure there could be a counter to every class that may seem overpowered. So, instead of crying because a class seems overpowered, you can build a spec to hammer that op class comp into the ground. Sounds like fun to me.
Classes, Races, & Factions
Similar to wow, you will have multiple races and factions to chose from. Each race has special racial abilities/quirks, as with each Faction. As far as classes are concerned, the only limitation at this time is Paladin and Warlock. These souls are not available initially for both factions, but can be unlocked later through a series of questlines, events, or whatever method Trion decides to use.
The 2 factions that inhabit Telara are the Guardians and the Defiant. Here’s the skinny on these guys. The Guardians believe in the gods. They worship them in hopes that one day the Gods will deliver Telara back to them. They hold steadfast in their belief that the gods give them power.
The Defiant on the other hand are more like the athiests. They believe in the science of things. That technology can produce the weapons necessary to fight back the impending evil that falls upon Telara.
However, there is a mystical item called sourcestone, which these factions fight over. The Guardians use the source to commune with their gods, while the Defiant use it to build machinery in an effort to best their foes. I’d say you could describe the Guardians as the a more traditional fantasy type faction, while the Defiant are all steam punk, technology types.
As I mentioned above, the paladin and warlock are initially locked into their factions. The paladin will fight only for the Guardians, while the dark energies harnessed by the warlock is exclusive to the Defiant.
In wow, certain classes are restricted to race choice. In Rift, you will not have any soul related restrictions related to race. Any race may choose any calling to play as.
Each faction has 3 races you can choose from. The Guardians have the dwarf, mathosian, and high elf. The Defiant have the Eth, Kelari, and Bahmi. Each with their own special abilities, talents, or buffs.
Raids and PVP
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that probably 90% of HR readers have been in a raid or pvp scenario. Most have us have spent some time in Battlegrounds. Many of us have braved what the raid dungeons have to offer. So, if you love to raid, or you love to pvp, then Rift will set the bar for what you expect.
Trion has announced that Rift will offer a plethora of 5 man instance dungeons. Many of them have been announced and showcased. Dungeons like Darkening Deeps, Deepstrike Mines, and Iron Tomb have all made their appearances at game conventions around the world. Not only are the low level dungeons challenging, but u can also go back to them at level cap for an epic experience. This epic version will sport new bosses, new areas, and new loot table.
Recently, they announced they would have 2 different 20 man raid dungeons at/around launch. There is one single dragon dungeon called Greenscale’s Blight, and another much larger dungeon that has 10 bosses called Hammerknell Fortress. So you raiders out there can prepare yourself for an encounter similar to a wow dungeon, but something totally fresh and less restricting.
There will also be pvp instances in Rift. They have announced one Capture the Flag type instance already. The world pvp will be the bread and butter tho. Rifts can actually be turned to attack your opposite factions areas. Imagine using a rift as a diversionary tactic to occupy players/npcs while you come in behind and destroy your opponents base/town while they are defending from the rift. I’m sure they would have zone related pvp as well. In wow, you don’t see a whole lot of that anymore because players just “que” and instantly port to their destination. Back during TBC, I remember Nagrand behind a hotspot for pvp on my server. There was always something going on, as the buff you received was pretty cool. I’m sure they will give us some really interesting and creative pvp scenarios.
Like I said earlier, they
will put everything that you would expect in an MMO, in Rift. The things you are familiar with in wow, will make it easier for you to understand once you see Rift in motion.
There is so much more that I would like to write about, but I’m out of time for this week. I’ll have an update on more information very soon. I would like to thank Ciovala and Tirith from RiftNexus.com & Telarapedia, as well as HorRiftic from HorRiftic.com. Many others have been very supportive in the community and I thank you. This game is looking more and more amazing each day. Cheers to Trion for having an amazing booth at Pax10 and a great after party following the show.(from what i heard 
) Gamescom and PAX Prime have been huge successes for Trion as far as getting the word out. I’m hoping to see that trend continue. I will have more articles coming your way in the very near future, so stay tuned!!
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Rawr!
Yay!