NBI: Retrospective

Ravanel posted today about the Newbie Blogger Initiative run last year by Syp of Bio Break fame. Given the woeful failure rate of blogs in general, Ocho's assessment of 25% NBI blogs still active a year later is a resounding success for the Initiative. I was honored to be invited by Syp to be one of the "steely-eyed veterans" giving advice, even though I am somewhat noobish about it myself. And I am happy to have served even a small role in the Initiative.

"We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."

Congratulations to those from the NBI Class of 2012 still going strong—or even limping along. Don't forget that you can "respec" your blog, even you originally started dedicated to a single game or theme. It might revitalize your enthusiasm for the hobby. This space started out as a WoW and STO blog, but has evolved as my interests have. To those who have shuttered your blogs, I am sorry you're no longer with us, and I hope you have found or returned to another hobby that you enjoy immensely. :) I still keep a running list of recent posts by NBI bloggers to the right.

Anyway, here are what others (both Veterans and Newbies) are saying about the NBI a year later, shamelessly stolen, like the Badge, from Ravanel:

• Ravalation: NBI: One Year and a Week Later
• Avatars of Steel: Virtual Party to celebrate the original Newbie Blogger's Initiative
• Casual Aggro: The Newbie Blogger Initiative - 1 Year Later
• Healing the Masses: Newbie Blogger Initiative Info and Guides Which I have also permalinked to the right. 
• World's End Tavern: Newbie Blogger Initiative: One year later
• The Ancient Gaming Noob: New Blogger Initiative a Year Later - Who Survived?

Souls, or, Finding Your Unique Playstyle in Rift

Before I get into my main topic, I wanted to say thank you, Dear Reader, for taking the time to read my drivel, especially in the past month or so. I have been focusing a lot on Rift for the past few posts, because that is the game that has been taking up so much of my time, like a shiny new toy. While I have still been playing WoW and STO, I don't have the same level of enthusiasm for them. If you've been saying "Shut up about Rift already," you probably are not even reading this. But if you are, bear with me; maybe even give the game itself a chance. While much of the hype about Rift's "innovations" may be just that--hype--the game is a solid playing experience with enough familiarity to be comfortable, and enough difference to be interesting.

On a another side note, how many of you fellow bloggers think of something you saw a another blog and want to reference/link it, but then can't find it? EDIT: In this case I read Elementalisty's post that said:

"There seems to only be two kinds of people that don't like Rift.
Those that think it is too much like WoW
And those that think it is not enough like WoW.
Everyone else loves it =D"

ANYWAY

I read Scary Booster's post from the other day, where he talked about changing his Cleric from a predominantly DPS caster-style Cabalist to a Tanky melee Justicar. He experimented a bit with the secondary souls until he found just the right combination for the way he wanted to play.

I went basically the opposite direction with my Rogue. She started out a Tanky melee Riftstalker with a side of Bard (for healing) and Blade Dancer, then I split her roles around level 15, adding a group oriented Healer role dominated by the Bard, and changing the melee-heavy Riftstalker to a Ranger (ranged DPS with a pet). I love the way I can shoot from a distance; and if the mob gets too close, I can throw a couple Saboteur charges and blow the sucker up. Like Scary, after doing my own thing for a while, I decided to follow the advice of the Devs (It's Developer Appreciation Week!) and go with the recommended subsidiary souls. But I still have the ability to customize my talent trees to fit my style.

The best part of the soul system is that Trion has made it relatively painless to experiment with different builds, to see what works and what doesn't work for you and your enjoyment of the game. Resetting souls involves a nominal fee that scales with level (as far as I can tell) and frequency of resets. If the build isn't working, you can reset and try again. And you don't have to lose time starting a new character from scratch if you decide to change playstyles. With the Rogue archetype, I can do ranged or melee DPS, even Tank and/or Heal. In WoW (just to compare), if I wanted to switch from melee DPS to ranged/pet DPS to Tank to Healer, I would need four different characters: Rogue, Hunter, Warrior, Priest. Even the hybrid classes in WoW tend to be spec-focused on a single role. In Rift, I just change roles, up to four (between fights, though given the right combination of souls, I could switch totally on the fly with some loss of effectiveness.)

With the total max-level points at 66, and the top of each soul tree requiring 31 points, you can reach the 31-point talent in two trees, with points to spare. Or fill out a tree completely (every talent) for a 51-point "root" ability with 15 points still available for the other two trees. The one thing I would suggest about the system would be to have some benefit to balancing the points across all three soul trees (22-22-22)--a boost to the primary attribute for the archetype, for example--just to make it a competitive option versus more specialized specs. Right now, most players I know have one "zero-point" soul, with only the first basic abilities available.

A lot has been said about "bring the player, not the class" in Rift. I haven't seen a whole of that, having only been through one instance, but in that run we had a Rogue tank, Rogue melee, Rogue ranged and two very different clerics healing/minor DPS. It worked out pretty well. I look forward to the higher level instances as I level up and fill whatever role is needed.

On Respec'ing

Took some time last night to respec Rowan. I'll get to Locke soon, but want to play out Rowan tonight. Galo discusses the procedure at some length, so I won't go into it other than to say it was probably a little easier for me because Rowan is still such a lowbie, versus some Admiral trying to figure out what to sacrifice in order to take advantage of both BigBadB's findings and the new Starship skills. Two things I like about it:

1. According to the Patch FAQ, you can respec at each promotion, which means you can throw skill points into specific ship classes and then recycle them later when you outgrow the ship. Obviously of limited value to an Admiral, but great for those players still leveling characters.
2. Your old spec is highlighted, so you don't have to try to remember where you had skill points you don't want to change. Plus, you can mess around with deleting individual skills or start over from scratch, in both cases with your former spec still visible, so you can see the changes you are making. In contrast, when you respec in WoW, all of your talents disappear, and you have to save your spec somewhere besides the game interface if you are trying to tweak only a few things and keep most of the talents in place.

Of course, there are other things about the patch that I like, including the off-duty outfits and other cosmetic changes. My Klingon faction captain ended up with an extra ship, the new tier-2 cruiser. I am not sure if that was a glitch, because I had barely made LC, but I took it. My Fed fleet got together on the Klingon side and made a Klingon fleet, too, which was quite an experience. A bit different than starting a guild on WoW. (lol, I just realized the blog interface registers "klingon" as a spelling error, but accepts the capitalized "Klingon.")