Heroes Of Telara
Genciana Haggins
The main conflict in Rift is between the Guardians and the Defiant, or if you prefer, faith and devotion vs. science and reason. All PCs are members of the Ascended, resurrected heroes that have been brought back to the planet to fight against the cults and dragons that want to conquer Telara.
As a Guardian, you're one of the chosen of the Vigil, chosen for your skill in battle and sent back to Telara. After you participate in the defeat of Regulos at the end of the Mathosian War, you reappear twenty years later by the grace of the Vigil.
A hard-working, deeply religious breed of human, the Mathosians receive +20 death resistance and Motivational Roar, an out-of-combat sprint that boosts their run speed and that of any nearby allies for 10 seconds. For some reason, you can't use Motivational Roar in combat, which deeply limits its utility; it's mostly good for running back after a wipe.
You know, dwarves. Hard-working, good craftsmen, epic beards, sort of short: dwarves. They get +20 water resistance and Density, one of the better racial abilities in the game; you can fall up to twice as far without dying. When you're exploring, this comes in very handy.
Skinny, pointy-eared, magical, generally sort of obnoxious: as go the dwarves, so go high elves. They get +20 life resistance, but the real reason to go elf is Angelic Flight, an out-of-combat ability that lets you float over gaps or chasms. You can't control your altitude, so you can't use it to bypass walls, but it's often very useful.
An Ascended member of the Defiant is brought back to Telara by ancient Eth technology, made to mimic the creation rites of the Guardians. You're initially brought back to life in a dark future, where the Guardians have failed to fight off Regulos; all that's left of them are a few mad zealots still trying to fight the Defiant.
A huge, heavily-tattooed race that comes from the southern deserts, the Bahmi are about as close as Rift comes to having playable ogres. They get 20 air resistance, but the real reason to play a Bahmi is Mighty Leap, a 15-second jump that propels them anywhere within 30 meters. You can't use it in combat - and what is it with Rift and useful abilities not being usable in combat, anyway? - but it gives Bahmi melee characters another way to close a gap. On the other hand, if you intend to be a primary caster, Mighty Leap doesn't do you a lot of good.
A darker-skinned race of humans, the modern Eth are the descendants of what was once a vast empire, but which was destroyed by the dragon cults. Most of the weird technomagic the Defiant uses is Eth tech, of either ancient or recent vintage. For playing an Eth, you receive 20 earth resistance and Desert Dweller's Birthright, a 70% out-of-combat sprint.
Take the high elves, but make them more spiritual, more conceited, and generally a bit darker, and you wind up with a Kelari. For picking one, you get 20 fire resistance and Camouflage, a 30-second transformation that turns you into a fox, despawning your pets and vastly reducing your aggro radius. This is great when you've fought your way into a monster-infested area, and must now get back out.
At the moment, there are no truly game-changing racial abilities. The Bahmi's Mighty Leap is the only one that provides any real utility, and even it's only really useful for melee classes that don't have a gap closer, such as the Shaman soul.
Valnyr is still knee deep in Silverwood quests this week, but I decided I would strike out for Sanctum anyway, the temptation of all the Carnival announcements too much to resist. But I finish up one of my quests before I head west. Colten Feddel has asked me to cleanse three Shrines of Tavril in SIlverwood - the Tribute of Stone, Tribute of Soil, and Tribute of Wood. As the goblins spread the fire of Maelforge through the forest, they have been defiling these holy shrines. Colten is afraid that if this carries on, Tavril will grow weak and be unable to keep her part in maintaining the Ward, the magical barrier that protects Telara from the elemental planes.
Completing this quest means wiping out camps of goblins. As I'm doing this I advance to Level 10. Only one soul point to spend this time and it goes into Elemental Link. Elemental link reduces all damage done to both me and my earth elemental by 6%, plus it also increases my Air Elemental damage by 6%.
Once I've finished cleansing the shrines, I head off to Sanctum. It takes a while. Not because it is very far, but because I have to stop and fight quite a few Aelfwar cultists along the way. But by sticking to the main road I eventually make it.
Sanctum is quite a sight to behold, and its history is integral to the backstory of Rift. During the final Shade battle, many alliances were made in order to defeat Regulos. After the terrible battle, the new coalition made its way across the land. It had a new city to build, new plans to make; because, although Regulos was defeated, the cults of the dragon gods were still rampant across Telara.
But while traveling through Silverwood, the dwarf King Borrin Gammult began to have visions. He saw a huge, majestic city sitting atop a small island. He saw heroes coming and going, using this city as a meeting place, a base of operations in their fight against the Blood Storm.
These visions were dismissed, perhaps as a result of a blow to the head during the battle, but as the vast company approached the coast, an earthquake occurred, shaking the very ground they walked upon. Prince Zareph and his followers braced themselves, some fearing a return of the Shade.
But then a feat of wonder occurred right before their eyes. There was a huge surge in the ocean. A massive wave burst up from the water, a fountain that sprayed a mile into the sky. And when the water cleared, an island was slowly rising from the depths, wet crags and rocks gleaming in the afternoon sunlight.
Borrin knew he had found his purpose. While the others moved on, the dwarf and his followers stayed behind to construct the city he had seen in his visions, the future home of the Ascended and their followers.
Last week I finished up at the Kelari refuge and started to make my way toward Meridian. But I should have known I wouldn't get there immediately. There is just too much to look at and do along the main road leading to the city. This week I spent most of my time helping a group of Defiant characters at a small farm holding called Eliam Fields.
This whole area is farming country, and even though there is a war going on, people still need to eat. The Defiant at Eliam Fields know this, and they have been trying to imbue their farms with Defiant magic, hoping to make food grow quicker. Unfortunately, things went wrong, and some boars in the area have been affected by the magic, turning them into monstrous creatures that are terrorizing everyone nearby. It's up to me to kill them.
Once that was done, Cyriac Leighton tasks Anmar with something more dangerous. The nearby Todrin estate is overrun with Death Cultists. The cultists have stolen the charged Sourcestones that Cyriac was using to speed up the growth of their crops, and they are using them to power their own death magic. I must collect them and bring them back so they can carry on with their experiments into food growing.
Arnald Weaver also gives me a task. He wants me to collect Endless Court Insignias from the corpses of the endless cultists. He says they are imbued with the power of the cult, and he hopes to learn more about their powers from these Insignias. Of course, Anmar has to kill them all first.
During this quest I move up to level 12. I have two points to spend and they go toward: Single Minded Focus (level 4). This increases damage of all single target attacks by 4%. Plus I get Piercing Shot. It is a ranged attack that deals weapon plus 30 to 32 physical damage. What I particularly like about this skill is that it reduces the target's armor by 107 for 15 seconds, allowing me and my boar to inflict much more damage. I now start off my attack with the Piercing Shot, as it sets up the rest of the fight by reducing my foe's armor.
When I take Arnald his Insignias, he tells me that there is an odd power rising from them. Something he hasn't encountered since his men came across a being called Xalos in Seastone Bluff. The creature retreated into a planar flux, and now he wants me to power up the Shade Collector and uses it at the top of a nearby tower surrounded by Wailing Spirits, Risen Thralls, Doomed Spirits. All of which I have to kill before I can climb the tower.
Once the float is gone, I carry on in search of Xalos. This was a nicely challenging quest. A lot of is about picking your right moment to attack, so that none of the other undead creatures spot you in mid-fight and come to back up their comrade.
This didn't work all the time, and Amnar and his pet had to fend off double attacks quite a few of times, barely managing to scrape through with their lives. This is the downside to putting so much focus on ranged attacks. When Amnar's pet can't hold the attackers back, Amnar is forced into melee combat, something he is not entirely comfortable with. I might have to put some points into that as I progress.
Anyway, I make it to the top of the tower and slay Xalos. This final battle wasn't as difficult as I expected it to be. Getting out of the tower is more of a challenge as all the enemies have now respawned.
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