If you missed the announcement yesterday, Trion Worlds announced that Rift will be moving from a subscription service to a free-to-play service, starting June 12. That is also when Patch 2.3 will launch, which opens up the Dendrome, Grim Awakening (10-man) and some other minor things.

I don’t think anyone is truly surprised by the transition to F2P. The MMO world has been moving that direction for years and Rift was the last subscription holdout besides WoW. As I said in this forum post, I think that trend is preparing to reverse itself, but Trion obviously sees it differently.

I don’t think the F2P transition is the end of the world, but Trion has been handling this announcement with utter disdain for players and abject stupidity from its representatives. Daglar started strong, but now is going around picking fights with players in the announcement thread and giving curt, borderline rude replies to subscribing players. He also temporarily changed his title from Rift Team to Rift Master for several hours yesterday, but today has changed it back. Odd.

The FAQ has essentially zero useful information and no details. There’s no page setup to address people’s legitimate concerns. Instead threads are being closed and people are getting flippant responses.

There’s no question that Rift has been struggling to gain subscribers. F2P is essentially the nuclear option for attracting new players, but you can’t unfire the missile and you risk alienating people who were on your side before.

The most important advertising any business has is word-of-mouth from its existing customers. With the F2P announcement, a lot of new players are taking a look at Rift, perhaps for the first time. Many of them will ask existing players about the game. The worst thing Trion can do is write off existing players, thinking they can be replaced.

Daglar is the most public and highest ranking face of the Rift production team, but he’s acting like his actions don’t have consquences.

Trion needs to start working immediately to ensure existing players that our concerns will be addressed. The first step in that process is Daglar either dealing with his players as people, or shutting the hell up and appointing someone else who will.

Riftblade
* Rift Spear: Now an Area of Effect ability, due to this it will be affected by any damage bonuses and penalties to AoE attacks.

This really only affects PvP and Hardmode Kain, but it shows that devs are aware of the problem. I also much prefer the cautious approach to balancing of doing slight nerfs, compared to the wild swings in power they’ve done in the past.

So Warriors are on the right track. Now if they can take a look at Pyromancer.

Rapid Fire Shot reduced to 16 Energy
Decoy is now off-GCD
(source)

By Ailion
The damage of Deadeye Shot is already increased by approximately 10%. You should be able to parse it on PTS.
(source)

These changes could potentially put MM above Ranger again, and could result in Rogues actually using Deadeye Shot again. That would let MM do a bit more damage while sacrificing some mobility. Worth it?

The problem with this, of course, is if MM is more DPS than Ranger, people will start complaining about Ranger being worthless again. Sound familiar? Can’t make everyone happy.

Red Stuff – Don’t stand in it. e.g. Gelidra

Beam Stuff – Just like normal red stuff, but there’s a rotating beam inside of it. It won’t hurt you unless you touch the beam, but the beam will kill you. e.g Hard Mode Zaviel

The Wave – An AOE which moves across the playing field and must be dodged. You can see it coming but you have to be watching for it. Getting hit often results in a Mortal Strike debuff.

Meteor – An AOE targeted on a player that splits its damage between all players hit. Countered by stacking up. e.g. Falconer

Mind Control – A player is taken over by the boss and must be freed, usually by damaging them or the thing doing the controlling. e.g. Crucia

Living Bomb – Players in your raid (usually 1-3) receive a debuff that causes them to pulse damage on anyone close to them. Usually they should run away. e.g. Hard Mode Kain

Feels Good Man – Variant of Living Bomb. The player who receives this gives a damage increase to everyone around him at first, and then must run out just before the bomb goes off. e.g. Regulos

Droppin Fat Loads – Variant of Living Bomb. Targeted player needs to get out of the raid and drop off his package in a designated safe zone to keep the raid from exploding, bathing in acid, etc. e.g Matriarch

Bossy’s Wrath – Close-range AOE designed to kill melee. Often a OSK attack, but not always. Avoid it by moving away from the boss. Often immediately preceded or followed by Come Hither Bomb. e.g. Kain Corpse Explosion

Bossy’s Smash – Just like normal Bossy’s Wrath, but has a different damage pattern so special attention must be paid to avoid it. e.g. Regulos

Come Hither Bomb – Boss launches an attack that will OSK anyone who is not close enough to him. Often immediately preceded or followed by Bossy’s Wrath. e.g. Progenitor

I Like to Move it Move it – Either targeted players or the entire raid needs to move continuously to avoid damage. e.g. Zaviel

Zee Goggles Do Nothing - All players must look away from the boss or else they will be killed or stunned. e.g. Gangnam

If you learn to recognize these mechanics, it makes it easier to describe what’s going on to your raid members and makes learning the boss that much easier.
Did I forget any common mechanics? Let me know!

When its gotten bad in the past, I’ve remarked on it. And now the discussion is taking place on the Rift forums once again. With Pyromancer as the undisputed #1 ST DPS and Riftblade right behind with strong cleave, where does that leave Rogues? We have some good options for melee with Bladedancer and Nightblade, but we aren’t going to beat the powerhouses.

Are Rogues considered 2nd class citizens, forever doomed to a life of mediocrity? Or am I just making a mountain out of a molehill?

The first and most important thing I’ve learned is that fairness does not actually exist. When I was a kid, I experienced all kinds of mistreatment. Sometimes my brother got a better Christmas present than me. Sometimes my dad took a bite of my McDonald’s ice cream cone, sometimes my coach would make me run laps because I made a joke. My response to all of these breaches of my sense of justice was to claim “That’s not fair!” and my father or coach would reply “life’s not fair.”

So what is fair? Does it depend on the situation? When invites are going out to raiders, do I invite the old-reliable raider who doesn’t have the best DPS or the new guy who does? Is it more fair to reward loyalty or performance? If I reward loyalty, does that send the message that performance is not important?

When a piece of loot drops, do I give it to the guy who has the highest attendance, or the girl who does the most DPS or the guy somewhere in between who has a terrible item to upgrade? Which one is fair?

If you answered “DKP” then which DKP system is fair? The one that lets people hoard points while upgrades rot? The one that lets bad players take guild-first relics? The one that lets geared members keep the top spots to poach any loot they wish? If DKP is so fair, why do so many people hate it?

There are 3 ways to look at fairness. You can award equally to everyone (socalism); you can award based on performance (meritocracy); or you can award based on the good of the guild (fascism). If you distribute loot or raid spots completely following any one of these principles, you will lose good people who disagree with the philosophy. People who always show up won’t understand why they get a smaller share just because they die sometimes. People who top DPS charts and never die want a bigger share of the loot. People with the worst gear, don’t understand when they’re passed over.

So what’s the answer? Well, Dad was right. Life’s not fair, and neither is raiding. You reward performance regularly but not always. You reward consistency and attendance, but not with every drop. You give upgrades to the most needy when appropriate or when it fills a gap in their gear to help progression.

If someone is good enough to be in the raid, they deserve gear. Even the lowliest screw-up. If you didn’t need him, he wouldn’t have that 20th spot. You rely on him and he deserves drops now and then.

The key to a successful loot system is transparency and making sure no one is ignored or passed over. At least, not too often.

However, more Ranger changes may be coming and we’ll have to keep an eye on it going forward. Right now, there’s really no point using Ranger in a raid. Its like a harder-to-play Marksman, but without an interrupt or purge. Zzz.

From Ailion

Just a heads up, some Bladedancer and Ranger changes are already up on PTS. Patch notes haven’t been posted yet.

1) Bladedancer: Dauntless Strike: No longer increases the Critical Hit chance of group members. It now applies a debuff to the target, increasing the target’s chance to be critically hit by 5%.

2) Bladedancer: Blade Hustle: An additional effect has been added. You now gain Blade Hustle every 3s, increasing the damage of your next Quick Strike or Precision Strike 3-9%. Stacks up to 10 times.

3) Bladedancer: Disengage: Can now be used anytime. Now on GCD.

4) Bladedancer: Dancing Steel, Hundred Blades: Now on a 30s cooldown, down from 60s.

5) Ranger: New ability added to the Blood Raptor. The Blood Raptor can now charge at the enemy, dealing physical damage.

6) Ranger: Escape Artist: Cooldown has been reduced to 1 min, down from 2 min.

7) Ranger: Fleeting Instinct: Effect can now be applied both in and out of combat.

I’m excited about the speed that the devs are responding to the community. It wasn’t long ago that the discussion began on the forums about Bladedancer having no place in a raid.

It wasn’t competitive in DPS with NB/Sin, suffers horribly during disconnects. To top it off, the AOE channeled abilities didn’t fit well with rotations and weren’t up often enough to be used when needed on cleaving encounters.

These changes seek to address those issues. It certainly won’t make BD the best for every raid encounter (or even most) but for a few, it will be the perfect spec.