Suguay Productions

Storm Legion has landed and, within a few quests, all that work put into getting good gear almost feels a waste.

I was nearly to the point of having a full set of purple gear. Now I’m back to a mix of greens and blues and one or two purples left, until I replace those of course. As I really should have and really did expect, Storm Legion greens are better than Chocolate Rift purples. *sigh*

The first piece I got wasn’t so bad. I didn’t even use it because it wasn’t as good as a piece I had just made. Whew. But most of the rest of the stuff I got as quest rewards really was better. In some cases we’re talking not a little better but A LOT better.

I was ok with it until I got the staff. All the work to get the Inscribed Source stone to get the staff, and in just a few hours of play I have an even better one. And I got the new wand right after I got the staff. It makes me a little sad.

Ok so enough lamenting. Truth is, if I hadn’t put all that effort into getting that gear, I’d be struggling. Storm Leagion level 50 mobs in the new zones are at least as hard as the 52’s in Ember Isle, so as sad as I am to be replacing gear I worked hard for so soon, I’m glad I made that effort to get that gear. And I’m glad to be getting even better gear now.

By the time I get this posted we will be mere hours away from the launch of Storm Legion, the first expansion to Rift. I’m excited about it. I’ve actually been spending some time working to get my Mage geared up and leveled up and I am finally starting to feel powerful. At least for a few hours anyway. I am enjoying it too.

I was able to get enough Inscribed Source Stone to get my second level Planar Staff. That has really helped. Of course all that Planar Attunement that comes alone with it from all the leveling doesn’t hurt either.

I’ve been fairly good about doing my crafting dailies and weeklies and had a fair bit of Master Craftsman Marks that I decided to spend. Well, I didn’t spend all of them, just most of them. I got recipes for about four pieces that I can wear and they will help with my stats. Of the four recipes, two I could make right away and two are going to take a few days since some of the materials they require are those master ones that you can only make one of every twenty hours. I’m hoping for that to go away in the expansion, and I thought I looked in beta, but I can’t remember. So I’ll just proceed as if it’s still there. My luck the Grand Master material will be a forty hour cool down.

Crafting aside. I’ve also done some Chronicles. I need the marks to get some of the gear I want, I’ve even looted an item in one that was better than what I had, though not as good as what I’m going to make. Anyway. I ran the two person chronicles on my Mage alone. I have an elemental pet that I let tank for me. I was really pleased to find I could solo those once I got the new staff and two other new pieces.

I’ve even taken on some level 50 rifts solo and succeeded. Well, not with the major one but that’s a whole other story.

I am really enjoying feeling like my character has some power. She may not be as powerful as she could be but she’s getting there. At least for now. Soon she’ll be clawing her way back up the ladder with everyone else.

There is another factor other than gear. That is that I feel like I fianlly get it. I get how to get more powerful. I get how to get to the top levels, or at least close. I know it’s within my capabilities. Seems a little strange to me after nearly a year of playing Rift and a few years of World of Warcraft, among other games. You would think that whole thing had sunk in before now. Only, I guess it hadn’t.

So for now my Mage feels powerful, soon, maybe not so much. At least she won’t be so weak as to make her feel like I’m starting over when the expansion hits. And, I am looking forward to Storm Legion with a different frame of mind. Become fearce and powerful. It’ll be fun!

Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.

Originally I was going to write yet another article complaining about respecs. When the patchg for Rift dropped, in preparation for Storm Legion we all got the joy of respecing our toons. For some, maybe not so joyous.

I am going to take just a moment to whine about the process. It took over two hours just to respec my four toons with a total of five roles. Choosing new roles was bad enough, setting up my action bars was almost a nightmare. For those of you with six toons and multiple roles per, or more, really you have my sympathies. My other whine is that I was just getting used to the new role I chose for my Warrior and I was really comfortable with how I was playing my Cleric. And I really had things down on my Mage. Don’t get me wrong, none of them were perfect, well my Cleric felt close to it. But I was comfortable with them.

Maybe that’s the point. We get comfortable with our play style and abilities and get complacent.

In defense of the respec, I have seen some improvement and advantage. Though not all of it is attributable to new roles. For my Mage and my Warrior, it comes down to the change in how Planar Attunement is handled. Finally I feel like I’m doing the damage I should be. Or at least closer. I’m still trying to gear up.

I did notice that my Cleric seems to be a bit mroe powerful, even though she lost a lot of her healing abilities with the change. Still, she survives pretty good and if I’d go ahead and run her up to cap she might be my best bet at surviving Storm Legion.

Though I whine a bit about the respec process, it seems to be working out to an imporvement for me so I’ll just keep my head down and keep wailing on things in preparation for the expansion and hope I don’t have to spend too much time grinding old content to get gear to survive the new stuff.