Thread: Rift Survival for Everyone

The Basics

• A lot of UI issues you may have can be resolved within the main menu. Extra hotbars can be found under the “Settings” Action Bar tab. Also in the main menu you you can customize and scale your UI under “Edit Layout,” craft macros, redo your keybindings, and, once you have everything set, import those settings between your characters via “Import Settings.”
• The top left button on your minimap brings down a tracking list where you can chose to track various NPC’s on it. These include venders, healers, trainers, and mailboxes, as well as many others.

Starting Your Character Out

• There are no choices you can make about your characters soul choices (except for choosing the calling itself) that can’t be reversed by level 13, so don’t be afraid to try what you want and mess it up, because it isn’t that hard to fix. You can reset your soul point distribution at any class trainer, and at level 13 you can start unlocking the other five souls of a calling; allowing you to switch those out as well. When you do get a new soul, all you have to do to switch it out is click the soul’s icon at the center of it’s tree in the soul tree window (“N” by default). Remember, the soul your switching must have no points spent in it to switch it out.
• There is no level limit on your first mount, only the money is needed. Your mounts, as well and vanity pets, different currencies, and many other important stats and abilities, can be found in in your Character window (“C” by default).

Early Levels

• Once you leave the starter zone for your faction, and before you start questing, travel along the main roads and clear as much of the zones map as you reasonably can. This will help you when zone events and invasions hit, letting you see where invasion forces are moving, bosses spawn and key objectives are located. This will also let you get to your main city and set your soul recall, allowing you easier access to the banks and crafting center while leveling. You’ll want to explore like this each time you enter a new zone. It can be dangerous, but it is also very worthwhile.
• Craft while you level. You can make gear for your character that is as nice or nicer than quest rewards via crafting, and with the salvage abilities that you get with the gear crafting skills, you will not need as many raw materials as you think to progress. And while you are leveling up your crafting skill, make sure you do the daily crafting quests, as these give you tokens to by new recipes unavailable at a trainer, as well as chances for rare crafting mats and crafting augments.
• If you are going to sell crafting materials to make money, remember to PROCESS them. A stack of raw hide, lumber, or ore has no use to a person without the gathering skill, and will just sit in the AH gathering dust. Turn these items into leather, planks, or metal bars before you sell.

Rifts, Invasions and Zone events

• You will get the same amount of experience and contribution in a rift or invasion force solo as you would in a group. So why group? Simple, because grouping will let you get other players buffs, auras, and heals, and give you a better idea of where the action is located.
• /1 is the best channel to share invasion information on as it is zone specific. All other channels are game wide.
• Learn to read the map and and its various icons. It will not only show where the attackers are, but where they are heading. Important locations (like drop off points, targets, etc.) will also show on your map as if the event was one of your quests.
• Planar charges are the number of times you can use a special Ascended powers. The powers can be bought from the various planar merchants, and include wardstone augmentation and healing, self-buffs versus invader forces, and calling in NPC reinforcements and soul menders. You lose one charge every time you use one of these powers and gain a charge every time you close a rift.

Misc. Low Level Advice

• Rift’s soul system allows for a single calling to do many things, but they all take different methods to master. Don’t let an inexperienced player using a soul poorly lead you to think that the soul itself is at fault. Just because the Chloromancer you had in your group was unable to keep the party alive doesn’t mean that Chloromancers are incapable of main healing.
• Don’t be afraid to experiment. A lot of the basis for some “expert” opinions are grounded in other games, and have no real bearing in Rift. Try a soul combination out and see for yourself. If you are wrong, it is easily undone.
• Look for the hidden treasures, secrets, and puzzles. The are all over the game and can reward you handsomely for going off the beaten track. Curiosity may kill the cat, spell and the thought of some epic drops for exploring makes the corpse run worth it.

The Low to Mid-levels

• Once you hit 15, you should have had the opportunity to unlock your remaining five souls for your calling. With this done, you now should be looking to unlock your second role and considering an alternative build. You’ll want a solid idea of what you want to accomplish with it, and don’t be afraid to specialize. Possible concepts for the role can be PvP DPS or Heals, Tank, Instance DPS or Heals, etc. Once you have the new build, practice, learn the powers and of unfamiliar soul trees and get a general picture of where you want to go with it.
• Don’t forget to visit your calling trainer, at least once every two to three levels to train up the abilities you have
• Start spending the Planarite you’ve earned closing rifts and stopping invasions. The gear is the best you can get at this point and will carry you well into the next zone. Also look at upgrading your source core (the item you slot the stat boosting planar essences in), or buy a second one for your specialized role (e.g. one that focuses on endurance to use with a tank build). These source cores are going to be the major way you allow your stats to compliment your roles concept.
• While you are at the Planar Vendor, get your first two Ascended powers. Augment Wardstone and Flare will serve you well in the invasions throughout the rest of the game.

Instances

• Be flexible and willing to shift your role as needed. You will find cases in dungeons where a boss needs an extra tank to pick up the additional spawns or hits hard enough to warrant a back up healers, if you have the role available, make sure you let your party know it so they can factor that in.
• Pay attention to the scripted dialog in the dungeon. If an NPC tells you to come to him so he can protect you, then its probably a good idea if you do. They will also hint at what targets to attack, and how to defeat them.
• Make sure your Soul Vitality is at max before you go in. Having your stats suddenly halved in the middle of a run is an unpleasant experience to say the least.
• On getting a group, until some sort of LFG system is implemented, you will find you will have an easier time getting a group together if you offer to be the one to form the party. When you say that you are LFG in chat, the only ones who will take notice are the ones who are forming parties. However, if you say you’re one of the ones forming a group, other players who are LFG, as well as other groups not yet full and players who are interested but haven’t actively expressed it will take notice. This doesn’t mean you have to lead the group inside, ask who has experience in the dungeon once the party is formed and have them head the group. If no one has been there before, have the tank call the pulls.
• It’s just common sense, but make sure you have 90-120 minutes for the run. It won’t necessarily take that long, but bailing on a group is bad form, and if you do it too much, you may find word of your unreliability has spread where you will have trouble getting into parties. Also, don’t bail after a wipe without saying anything. It’s just tacky.

PvP

• First and foremost: Accept that not every soul will be PvP oriented. Just because a soul can do major damage in a PvE environment does not mean its suited for open combat against other players. This doesn’t mean that the soul is broken, or not usable in PvP, just that it may take a new build from what you normally play to make it work.
• Saboteurs are not unfair. It takes them 6-8 seconds to set up their own attack, and combat with any other DPS class usually only lasts that long before it is over. If you keep dying because of them look for the debuffs they are building on you to know the attack is coming. Use any damage mitigation ability or shield when they hit 4 charges to take the brunt of the blast. They are the single most unique soul in the entire game, and I have yet to see an analog of them in any other game. This means you are not used to fighting them. It doesn’t mean they are unbeatable though.
• In Warfronts, learn the rules of the encounter. For example, in the Black Garden, you’ll get more points for a kill the closer its made to the center of the map. So, even if your team can get the Fang of Regulos, take it back to their side, and hold onto it the entire match; the other team can win by staying closer to the center and picking off members of your team.
• Maximum damage isn’t always the best way to go. The Dominator mage soul, for example, is one of the few souls built with PvP foremost in mind, and properly played, can be a huge advantage for your side.
• On PvP servers, hotkey your PvP spec. Delay the fight, hide, do what ever you can to get yourself in a position to fight back.
• On PvE servers, don’t think PvP is only in the Warfronts. Some zones have invasion-like events that involve the two factions fighting each other, so world PvP can and will still happen. Either suit up or take cover.

Crafting

First, the crafting skills, with the needed gathering skills to be self sufficient, what crafting stations they use, and what callings they work best with.

• Apothecary – Foraging (for plants) and Butchering (for animal parts); Laboratory; any calling
• Armorsmithing – Mining and Butchering (for leather); Forge; Clerics and Warriors
• Artificer – Mining and Foraging (for lumber); Workshop; Mages and casting/healing oriented Clerics
• Outfitter* – Butchering; Loom; Rogues and Mages
• Runecrafter* – nothing other than quality (green) or better items to runebreak; Workshop; any calling
• Weaponsmithing – Mining and Foraging (for lumber); Forge and Workshop; Warriors, Rogues, and melee oriented Clerics

*Note that Outfitter and Runecrafting are the only two crafting skills a single character can have at the same time and still be self-sufficient.

Tips On Basic Crafting

• When you are grinding up a skill, don’t forget to salvage what you don’t need. Salvage lets you reclaim some of the mats from a crafted item, as well as creates recycled materials that can be used to create temporary item buffs. With salvaging, you can skill-up 50 points with an average of 50 of the primary material (e.g. metal bars for Armorsmithing) as opposed to the 100-130 you would need if you didn’t salvage.
• In the main city there are quest givers that give a daily quest for you to craft and deliver materials to various places, depending on skill level. These quest reward XP and Artisan’s Marks, which can be used to learn recipes not available at the trainers.
• Runecrafting is good if you are an outfitter, or if you already have another character who is a crafter and can make materials to runebreak. Improving it via unneeded quest rewards and drops only is slow going.
• Augments let you make your gear tailored to your what souls you are using, they can be bought with planite (a random selection), earned via quest rewards, or are dropped in rift events either as a basic reward or from Puresources. However…
• Augments can fail. Depending on your skill level, and the level of the augment, you will not always succeed at crafting an augmented item. If you do fail, the item is not made and the augment is lost, although all other materials are returned. When placing the augment in the crafting window it will give you a rough idea for the difficulty. A gray “trivial” is guaranteed, but a yellow “average” has some risk.

Making Money

Not all craft skills are just for the characters benefit, Apothecary and Runecrafting have a great potential for making extra cash. Since rune crafting is a type of enchantment where the crafter doesn’t need to be present want the enchant is applied, you can easily sell the leftovers from grinding the skill in AH or trade. Apothecaries have the advantage of their products being consumable and that they are produced in bulk, but where they really hold the advantage is they can make armor dyes, and players love to customize how they look, expect black dye alone (which can only be crafted) to go for 5-10 platinum each, depending on the server and demand.

Extra cash can also be made by selling materials irrelevant to your craft skill. As an apothecary, you have no need for any lumber you may gather, but it sells quite well, and selling it doesn’t impede the progress of your craft, as opposed to selling materials you used, or spent extra time farming for.

A Comparison

To illustrate the potential of crafting, I did a quick study using the the soft leather armor an outfitter can craft. I have Outfitter, Runecrafting, and butchering as my skills.
Everything here was crafted by me with materials earned on the character at level 11 during the course of normal game play, with no time taken for farming.
Now, to the left is a shot of a regular crafted set of soft leather armor, and to the right is the same set, crafted, augmented and runestoned. The second set gives you a total extra +7 Dex, +6 Strength, +4 Endurance,and +3 Physical crit rating. I didn’t find equal quest rewards until level 20.

It’s important to note that this is only what it’s like to craft at the lower levels (1-30) at release, as the game progresses and evolves, we’ll make sure to add any new and important information.


The Black Garden

The Black Garden is the first Warfront, or scenario based, cross-server, PvP battle a player can access (at level 10). With 2 teams of 10 members each, the object is to reach 500 points or have the highest score after 20 minutes. Points are earned by killing members of the opposite team or by having one of your member carry the Fang of Regulos. The closer to the center of the map the carrier is or the kill is made, the more points are earned, with extra points awarded for kills made by the Fang carrier or by killing the opponents Fang carrier. Several power ups are located around the map, boosting character aspects (e.g damage) for a limited amount of time.

Basic Strategies when on Offense

• Control the Center – Focusing on controlling where the Fang spawns and maintaining control is a key element to Black Garden. You’ll earn more points for kills and if the Fang resets, you’ll have an easier time recovering it.
• Protect the Carrier – No matter what, the person who picks up the Fang WILL die eventually, but the longer your team can keep them alive, the more points you’ll earn both from them holding the Fang, and from their kills. This means you will also be right there to recover when the Fang does fall from their lifeless grip.

Basic Strategies on Defense

• Kill the Carrier… – if possible, lay down some AoE to prevent their team from recovering the Fang right away, allowing your team to recover it or have it return to the reset point.
• …But do so as a Unit – If you try to take on the carrier by yourself with no support, all you will be doing is feeding the other team points. The points they may earn while you get organized will be more than offset by the points they would have gotten if they had murdered your team piecemeal.

Advice for Warriors

• Target the mages. Your calling is strongest against them, especially if you have some Void Knight in your build.
• You should have a lot of health, so look to carry the Fang and make some kills for extra points, just don’t strike out on your own, or you’ll just succeed in giving the other team the Fang

Advice for Mages

• For you, support is the name of the game. Whether its the slows and snares of Stormcaller or the crowd control of Dominators, focus on keeping the other team locked down rather than dealing damage will get the win for your side. In PvP, this is a mage’s strongest aspect and can turn the tide of any match.
• If you are healing with a Chloromancer build and your side has the Fang, target through the Fang carrier, This will keep the focus somewhat away from you allowing you to stand and cast. Also,make sure Synergy is on them as soon as possible if you have it.

Advice for Rogues

• Focus on the healers, especially those on the opponents Fang carrier.

Advice for Clerics

• As a healer, make sure you are where the carrier is, whether it’s yours or theirs. Your support will help keep it or take it from them. A macro to let you focus target the carrier quickly is helpful for this.

Macros (part 1)
Macros are a vital part of MMO’s, especially in a game like RIFT where a player has so many abilities, that there’s a need to consolidate and prioritize them. There are limitations however and what a macro can’t do is the first thing a player should understand.

• A macro can only activate one power per use of the macro. This doesn’t mean a macro can only have one ability in it, it just means that if it does, it must be pressed for each ability.
• A macro can only say one thing in any of the various chat channels per activation.

Syntax
A macro is basically a list of slash commands strung together, however when writing the macro, a player should leave out the “/”. So instead of “/yell Get this thing off of me!” the player should instead type something along the lines of “yell Oh gods, it’s burns, IT BURNS!” Other than this the commands are use the same why as if you were to type them directly into the chat pane.
In addition to the basic commands, there are also targeting modifiers one can use. These are all preceded by the “@” symbol. These are placed after the command (e.g. cast @mark 1 Transmorgify) :

• @mouseover – This only works for the party portraits, pet portraits, and raid frames. It doesn’t work on the target-of-target
• @self – makes the target of the command line the player, regardless of who they have targeted
• @mark <#> – makes the target of the command line the target marked by the party of raid leader with the matching number
• @focus - makes the target of the command line your focus target
• @lasttarget - makes the target of the command line the target you had previous to your current one.

There are also a few special macro commands that are only used for making macros

• #show <ability name> – this defaults the macro’s icon to that of the named ability, and will also show the cool down of the ability if applicable.
• suppressmacrofailures – this command will prevent error messages generated by the macro conflicts in the macro itself (e.g. having more than one ability in the macro) but not other error messages (e.g. trying to activate an ability on cool down). It needs to be placed at the top of the macro.
• Modifier Keys: [ctrl], [alt], [shift] – these are placed immediately after a command and cause that command to activate only when the key listed is held down (e.g. cast [alt] @mark 1 Transmorgify)

Now for the commands themselves. There are many slash commands for the game, and many folks have taken the time to list them such as the ones over at Telarapedia. So instead I’m going to list only the most commonly used in macros.

• cast – activates the ability that follows the command (e.g. cast Transmorgify)
• stopcasting – interrupts any current ability being cast in order to allow commands in the macro to take place immediately
• saveequip <#> – saves all the gear currently equipped as a numbered file.
• loadequip <#> – equips the gear saved in the corresponding numbered file by the saveequip command
• mark <#> – marks the target with the number given (1-8). can only be used if the player is the party or raid leader.
• focus – sets the current target to be the focus target

Basic Framework Templates
Here are some templates so commonly needed macros. Replace anything in the “<ability>” with the ability’s name.

The Reactive Ability Macro – this macro is to help consolidate multiple abilities into one hot key slot. It will activate any reactive ability first, an ability with a cool down next if the reactive ability is unavailable, and the base attack if neither the reactive or the cool down abilities are up.

PHP Code:

#show <base ability>
suppressmacrofailures
cast <reactive ability>
cast <cool down ability>
cast <base ability> 


The Focus Target Crowd Control Macro – This macro will allow you to cast a crowd control spell on your focus target without switching from your current target. It will also set you current target as your focus target if you hold the alt key while activating it.

PHP Code:

#show <CC ability>
suppressmacrofailures
stopcasting
cast @focus <CC ability>
focus [alt] 


And while multiple abilities can’t be used in a singe macro press, with a little forethought, you can use multiple macros to achieve amazing results.

Ultimate Saboteur Pull – This is a set of 5 macros I use in my Saboteur build that allow me to detonate 4 sets of charges on four different targets and direct all the threat generated to the tank. First my saboteur has the annihilation bomb and the Demolitions Specialist that allows him to detonate the Blast or Spike Charges on a target as well as the Carpet Bomb ability.

Here are the macros

Incriminate Tank

PHP Code:

#show Incriminate
cast @focus Incriminate
focus [alt] 


Target 1

PHP Code:

#show Annihilation Bomb
cast @mark 1 Annihilation Bomb
cast [alt] @mark 1 Spike Charge 


Target 2

PHP Code:

#show Annihilation Bomb
cast @mark 2 Annihilation Bomb
cast [alt] @mark 2 Blast Charge 


Target 3

PHP Code:

#show Annihilation Bomb
cast @mark 3 Annihilation Bomb
cast [alt] @mark 3 Blast Charge 


Target 4

PHP Code:

#show Detonate
cast @mark 4 Detonate
cast [alt] @mark 4 Shrapnel Charge 


The tank marks the targets 1, 2, 3, & 4, and I first alt click the Incriminate Tank macro, then I alt click each of the Target macros 5 times in order, then I activate Carpet Bomb and hit Incriminate Tank, Target 1, Target 2, Target 3, Target 4. Because that macro auto targets for me, I am able to get all abilities off in the 6 seconds allowed to me by incriminate, directing a total of 4000-5000 points of damage and threat per target to the tank, in the initial pull at level 45.
While it takes almost a full minute to set up this pull, the effects are impressive enough to warrat it, especially in the right raid situation of the overwhelming need to show off.

Macros (Part 2)
Today we’re going to cover some useful macro templates for the various roles and callings and go into crafting macros based on the situation.

All Roles

• Switch Equipment with Role – This macro comes into player later on in the game when you start collect several sets of gear to compliment your various roles. When alt is held when it is activated, it will save your current equipment to the equip 1 save slot, otherwise it will change the gear to equip one and then switch to your first role, all you have to do once you set the equipment is update it every time you get new gear for that set. Tanking callings will use this one a lot, but so will cleric healers who will need +focus in their DPS roles that they don’t need healing.

PHP Code:

saveequip 1 [alt]
loadequip 1
role 1 


Healers

• Battle Rez – I find the one problem with battle rezzes (in all games, not just Rift) is that when you die, your attention has a tendency to slip, and subtle change in the “You Are Dead” window easily goes unnoticed. This one may help:

PHP Code:

#show <battle rez>
stopcasting
y Get up %t! The fight’s not done yet!
cast <battle rez> 


• Mouse-over Healing – this will heal either your current target or if there is none or if targeting an enemy (providing cast on target’s target isn’t enabled), will cast one the player who’s life bar your mouse is hovering over.

PHP Code:

#show <Heal Spell>
cast @mouseover <Heal Spell>
cast <Heal Spell> 


Damage Dealers

• Assist – a helpful macro for single target DPS to ensure you are on the main tanks target in large pulls, this macro will set the main tank as your focus target when activated while alt is held and switch to the target of the focus target and attack it with your initial attack ability

PHP Code:

#show <base attack>
focus [alt]
target @focus
assist
cast <base attack> 


Tanks

• 5 Second Warning – This macro will announce that you are ready to pull and then with the pull ability after waiting for five seconds.

PHP Code:

#show <pull ability>
s Pulling %t in five seconds!
wait 5
cast <pull ability> 


• Oh Crap! Button – Tanks usually get 2-3 emergency powers with long cool downs meant to pull the bacon out of the fire and warn your party that you are in trouble. This macro consolidates them into one icon, and moving to the next ability on the list if the one before it is one cool down. It’s best to list them in order of the least powerful to the most.

PHP Code:

#show <ability with the longest cooldown>
y Oh Crap! I’m in trouble!
cast < OC ability 1>
cast < OC ability 2>
cast < OC ability 3> 


Macros on the Fly

Macros are a great way to make game play easier, but they don’t have the flexibility to handle situations that may arise in harder end game content. The best way to get both is to know how to throw together a macro on the fly. There are several tools in the macro chest that once you learn them, will let you construct a macro quickly.

Targeting – Besides the targeting modifiers we discussed last week, there are also targeting commands as well

• target <name> – Will target the nearest target who’s name starts with the same characters as those given. For example “target grim” can target a mob named Grim Champion or one named Grim Servitor.
• targetexact <name> – Will target only a mob with the exact name in range. For example, if there are two mobs named Grim Champion and Grim Champion leader targetexact grim champion will only target the first.
• targetlasttarget – will target the target you had last before the current one

Now, here’s a case study: I was tanking the Iron Tombs on expert mode, and we were up against Broodmother Venoxas. There are 3 eggsacs that have to be destroyed , and will spawn a mob called Venomous Defender that I have to pick up, but I also Must keep the boss turned away from the rest of the party, so after the first not so successful try, I write this macro:

PHP Code:

#show Instigate
targetexact Venomous Defender
cast instigate
targetlasttarget 


This will, if hit the moment the add is spawned, target it, taunt it, and return my attention to the boss, letting me put threat on the add when he gets to me with AoE attacks.

Things to Remember

• If the macro you are making is meant to be triggered at a moments notice, you need to add the command “stopcasting” immediately after the #show line. This will interrupt any ability you are currently casting to in favor it the commands in the macro. It is important to remember not to spam a macro with the “stopcasting” line it it, as it will interrupt itself as well.
• Death will clear your focus. If you or your focus target die, you will have to refocus on the target for any macros relying on a focus target to work.

by Konstantin