I was given a copy of Rift so I've been playing it since then. I was in the beta and I think I talked about it here during that time. Now that I'm playing the retail version, it really does feel like the people behind Rift are big WoW BC era fans. I like that my rogue can tank, be ranged dps or melee, and has a support role similar to the old shadowpriest of WoW. Still, the game is sticking with old designs of grinding for gear to reach next level of pve endgame grinding for more gear. The PVP system is also gear grind based. Players in PVP who have grinded for longer have gear that make it impossible for freshly new players to do anything against them.
For example, I approach a player. He has roughly 8k HPs to my 4k+ HPs. Both of us are at max level. I stealth in behind the player, set a debuff on them that makes them take a small bit of extra damage from me, stun hit them from stealth, set up two combo points. I do a hard hitting cast bow attack, then an attack that does damage on movement and then my best finisher. I hit a leapback move to get range. I hit my quick shot to start building combo points and keep moving. I hit my armor reducing attack. The opposing player, after all this, has lost maybe 20% health. They use a gap closer, hit me twice and I'm at about 10% health suddenly.
The PVP is about 85% gear based. Well, the entire game is and that's disappointing considering the adaptability the soul/skill system gives. The game is also full of 15 year old WoWtards. Some of you know the type I mean. The sort that litter general chat and whose brains are about 75% meme and 25% racist.
