Thirty days into one of the smoothest launches in MMOG history, the
team at Trion ups the ante with the first major content patch of their
new title. Rift
launched with more content than any other new game ever had, and the
content team flexed its collective muscle by introducing The River of
Souls patch so quickly. With such an ambitious and robust amount of
additions, tweaks and fixes we will spend the next few weeks looking at
the major points of the patch. Our second look focuses on the changes
made to the souls of Rift.
Next week we will unravel new dynamic content and take a look at the
changes to PvE dungeons.
From the official patch notes:
- Warriors: The following abilities have been
changed to fix an issue where the character could use them and die
before they actually triggered, making it seem like they missed: Touch
of Life, Master of the Abyss, No Permission to Die, Rift Shield, and
Predictable Movements. - Warriors: Taunts now continue cooldown timers
while logged out. - Mages: Reduced pushback on all non-healing Mage
spells. - Mages: Increased the base damage on all damaging
Mage abilities. - Clerics: All Cleric Cleanses should now properly
remove associated effects.
There were a ton of changes, tweaks and outright nerfs in patch 1.1,
which both delighted and angered players depending on which side of the
bat their favorite soul resided. Mages were once again big winners
while some rogue and warrior souls were brought down in damage output
significantly. It seems most of the changes were probably fueled by
PvP, which is disappointing since we were told that PvP nerfs wouldnt
effect PvE abilities. While class balancing is an expected part of the
MMOG experience, I worry that the effects of so many buffs to mages to
help increase their overall presence in Telara will ultimately backfire
when the inevitable reductions in power happen.
While there were lots of minor edits done to nearly every soul, lets
look at some of the more intriguing changes in each calling.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/97391">
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 600px; height: 254px;"
alt="Rift callings"
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Cleric
alt="Rift Druid"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/97292">
.
Cleric changes were mostly a mixed bag of neutrality this round, with a
smattering of bug fixes and tweaks. Druids and Purifiers had the most
to read about, with druids getting Fury of the Fae moved to the pet
castbar making management of the spell a more automated process.
Healing specd Clerics that still wonder why Chloromancers feel
superior in healing ability and DPS skills. While this may be mostly
collective QQ from the clerics, there is some merit to concerns that
mages are dominating many group compositions - my advice; spec deep
into Justicar.
DRUID
- Trickster Spirit, Slothful Spirit, Spiteful Spirit: Reduced
the damage to better account for the attached debuffs. - Fury of the Fae: Now a pet-cast buff that increases the
group/raid's Attack Power and Spell Power for 30 seconds with a 10
second cooldown. Shares stacking with Bard's Motif of Bravery. - Satyr: Increased the ratio of the owner's Spell Power
converted into the Satyr's Attack Power. - Weight of the World: Fixed a bug preventing this from
applying to ranks 2 through 6 of Crag Hammer.
PURIFIER
- Shield of the Ancestors and related buffs now appear in the
combat log. - Caregiver's Blessing: No longer procs off of procced heals.
- Surging Flames: Now converts 50% of overhealing.
- Divine Cascade: Reduced Spell Power contribution. Now has a
stack size of 1 per caster instead of 1 total, but only triggers when
target is healed by the caster rather than anyone. - Spirit Rupture: Fixed the contribution from Spell Power.
The overall balance of the Cleric calling is good and there are some
great souls to be found here. This round of changes did little to
diminish the appeal of the Cleric, but future patches will hopefully
help promote the healing side of the calling a bit better.
Mage
alt="Rift Mage"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/93666">
The truth of the matter is that Mages were woefully underrepresented
for the first few weeks of the game and something had to be done to
incentivize them. Were the changes too much too quickly? To
many players who didnt reroll mages, yes they were. Hopefully other
classes will be brought up to match the mages, but that usually isnt
how it works in MMOG-land.
CHLOROMANCER
- Withering
Vines: Increased the amount healed. - Livegiving
Veil: Now affects up to 5 targets. - Radiant
Spores: Now has a base chance to proc of 10%. - Phytogenesis:
Now increases the chance for Radiant Spores to proc by 2-6%.
Chloromancer is without a doubt one of the most intriguing souls in the
game, giving a heavy hitting DPS calling some truly amazing
versatility. With further buffing here in 1.1 it is becoming
increasingly rare to find a mage who doesnt have at least one roll
built around this soul.
PYROMANCER
- Heat Wave:
Reduced cooldown to 2 minutes. - Inferno:
Removed from global cooldown. - Improved
Grounding: Now a tier 2 branch ability. - Improved
Smoldering Power: Now a tier 3 branch ability. - Ground of
Power: Now obtained at 6 points. - Smoldering
Power: Now obtained at 8 points. - Burning
Shield - New Ability: Consumes the mage's Ground spell to shield them
in flames, absorbing damage. Lasts up to 30 seconds. While Burning
Shield is active, the next Ground spell is instant-cast. Obtained at 6
points. - Ground of
Strength: The stun proc from this spell is now affected by diminishing
returns, to match other stuns in the game.
In a case of the rich getting richer, the Pyromancer just got paid.
Without a doubt the hardest hitting DPS soul in the game currently it
is hard to spec mage and not go heavy pyro.
Rogue
alt="Rift Rogue"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/97392">
If we were to measure the effects of the patch on rogues in terms of
the environment they would receive a rating of carbon neutral for 1.1.
Not bothered by extreme losses or emboldened by extreme gains, Rogues
tend to have stayed the course as a powerful and fun calling full of
diverse gameplay. The only downside to this calling is when compared to
the other major DPS group the Mages. If we have learned anything in
our years in fantasy MMOGs however, it should be that judging apples
against oranges never works out well in the end.
BARD
- Due to the
below changes, characters with points spent in Bard have received a
free soul point respec. - Invigorated
Soul, Coda of Restoration: Now affects up to 5 targets. - Using Verse
of Fascination or Verse of Captivation now turns off auto-attack, since
these effects break on damage. - Verse of
Fascination is now tagged correctly as a Mesmerize effect. It can now
be removed by abilities that clear Mesmerizes and will not affect
enemies that are immune to them. - Motif of
Tenacity: Now unlocked at 12 points. - Anthem of
Defiance: Now unlocked at 18 points. - Motif of
Regeneration: Now unlocked at 24 points. Now casts on the Bard and
heals up to 10 raid or group members nearby with each tick. Uses smart
healing to select targets those with the lowest health of available
targets nearby. - Anthem of
Fervor: Fixed tooltip so the cost reduction is shown correctly when
points are spent in Street Performer. Also fixed the cost reduction not
being applied correctly to raid members when points are spent in Street
Performer.
Bards continue to be one of the most challenging and rewarding souls in
Telara, and the patch changes helped to sort out some of the more
annoying mechanic issues.
Warrior
alt="Rift Warrior"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/97393">
The cries of the Warriors have been heard all across the lands and on
the forums. The vast majority may be hyperbole, but the number of
warriors in warfronts and instance runs is definitely lower than it was
in the first 30 days. The main problem is that Riftblades
were one of the first real flavor of the moment souls and as a result
of their insane damage output centered around one ability, they brought
to light many of the issues with warrior balance. I have a feeling that
the next round of major changes will show warriors some love as their
numbers start to decline.
BEASTMASTER
- Flesh Rip:
Will now properly show up in the reactive ability UI when your pet
critically hits. Fixed an issue where this was gaining weapon damage to
each tick of the bleed effect. Base damage reduced. - Backhanded
Blow: Now correctly triggers global cooldown. Fixed a bug causing Rank
3 to do 20% more damage than intended. Base damage reduced. Corrected
Power cost on ranks 2 through 8 to cost the proper 25 Power. - Slashing
Strike: Fixed a bug where this ability was doing the damage of a single
target ability. The damage has been reduced to match other cleave-style
abilities. - Fight as
One: The benefits gained from Fight as One have been reduced to 5-15%
for Hit, Critical Hit, and Damage. This ability has been taken off of
global cooldown. - Diversion
Strike: Increases Critical Hit chance of the Beastmaster and their pet
by 5% instead of 10%. Damage lowered. - Tenacious
Wounds: Now increases bleed damage by 2-4% instead of 3-6%. - Feral Sweep:
Resolved a bug where this was dealing extra damage on each tick of the
Bleed effect. Base damage lowered. - Tearing
Slash, Fierce Strike: Damage lowered. - Protective
Companion: Fixed a bug where the armor bonus from Protective Companion
was not being applied for ranks 2 through 5. Corrected the armor bonus
from Protective Companion remaining on the Beastmaster after their pet
was killed or dismissed. - Protective
Companion caused Companion's Bite to debuff the target's damage. This
ended up not working as hoped, and the ability has been changed to a
buff for the pet that reduces the damage they take by 2% per Bleed
effect on the target, up to a maximum of 5 (10% damage reduction).
The Riftblade gets most of the attention on the forums, but the
Beastmaster may have been hit the hardest. While some of the reductions
were from bug fixes, the majority are direct nerfs to already middle of
the road soul. My insight as to why this may have happened comes in the
form of the buffs given to another warrior soul the Paragon. I have a
feeling there may have been too many Beastmasters running about the
world and too few Paragons. It will be interesting to see if players
will be baited into switching it up.
PARAGON
- Strike Like
Iron: Ability is no longer on the global cooldown. Increased from a
10-30% damage buff up to a 16-48% damage buff, with the value doubled
for follow-up attacks. No longer overwritten by lesser effects. - Death Touch:
Due to the Strike Like Iron changes, damage of Death Touch has been
lowered. - Force of
Will: Due to the Strike Like Iron changes, damage bonus to follow-up
attacks from Force of Will has been reduced from 20 per point to 10 per
point. - Path of the
Wind, Path of the Raptor: Now have cooldowns of 6 seconds and a slight
increase in damage due to the longer reuse time. - Dual Strike:
Fixed a bug causing this to do less damage than intended - as a result,
damage from this ability has increased. - Deadly
Grace: Increased from 7% of Dual Strike damage per point to 9% Dual
Strike damage per point. - Weapon
Master: Increased from a 4-20% chance to gain a second attack point up
to a 10-50% chance. - Combat
Precision: Fixed a bug that caused this to ignore 100% of targets
armor. Combat Precision now correctly ignores 1-5% of the targets
armor. - Rising
Waterfall: Damage increased. - Turn the
Blade: Damage increased. - Flurry:
Damage lowered.
Paragons had a couple of small downward adjustments, but overall the
increases were huge. Will this be enough to persuade players into
giving this monk in plate armor a go? I hope so, it really is a fun
soul to play and the reactive feel of the abilities keeps you on your
toes.
How did your favorite soul fare in this latest round of tinkering? Did
changes bring joy, tears, anger or a reroll? Let us know in our forums,
and check back next week as we look at the new rift and PvE content
introduced with the patch.
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our RIFT Game Page.
