Second Look at Rift: Day 6
Well it’s the final push to 50. I start off my day at 47.
Questing: Shimmersands
Earlier I indicated there was a leveling gap, in truth there isn’t. The problem is there is no bread crumb quest for Defiant to this region. I’m guessing it’s supposed that since you’re so close you’ll just eventually go there and think “this is a 35-50 area.” So I miss out on all of Draughtlands and move into the Shimmersands. I keep calling it the Shimmerlands, which is a desert zone in Allods Online.
So yes Shimmersands in the generic desert region. This is a zone loaded in quests. You’ll go to each hub and pick up about 5-6 quests. You are going to find tones of pirates and tones of people wearing turbans all over the place. As the story goes this region resupplies all of the major questing zones and this neutral faction supples for both factions. So obviously keeping these guys happy is a priority. So the General herself is there representing the cause.
One thing about this zone is it doesn’t flow as well as others.
One of my favorite quest sets is this one where you put on a.. er… pirate costume and go to the pirate hide out.
It turns out that the pirates who are vying for control of the area are as powerful as those Neutral Arab Traders you’re trying to be friends with. Included in this area are most of the human bad guys you’ve been dealing with (Goldenmaws, Aelfwars, Storm Legions, Endless Court guys) and one non-human group (Wantons). It seems as if it is these guys are uniting all of these factions against you as they vie for control for their territories.
These missions are all done from the premises of a prison where the leaders operate everything.
No one really seems to question this random Shaolin pirate running around so go with it! This zone focuses around trying to gain favor with their leader Hazeed as he tells you the masterful plot of this whole zone. Of course what you actually end up doing is trying to create descent by killing allies and stealing things in his name.
This is of course the single most important quest line in this entire zone BECAUSE it all revolves around the plans of Hazeed. You will find all the quests after this revolve around the various groups that Hazeed is trying to get together.
Dungeon: Lantern Hook
So I decided to tank a dungeon, yep I said it, tank a dungeon. I’ve had this tank spec for a good 40 levels and never used it. Now is the time. My first dungeon tanked is Lantern Hook which is a big Wanton dungeon (they’re the leatherhead people). The dungeon is access through a pool in the Draughtlands which leads into the instance portal. Might be a bit tricky to find for noobies like myself.
The dungeon is underground and constantly surrounded by fire. On top of that it is insanely short, three bosses and maybe 14 trash pulls.
This is the first boss Rorf (yes stupid name). Everything looks pretty calm in this picture because you don’t see what’s happening behind me (and neither did I). The boss will go and summon pack dogs who will come from the holes from around so you’re best to tank this boss on your group to help you pick up these ads faster. This is really all he does.
Second boss is Pyromancer Cortilnald. He will teleport across the room and spam fireballs. He also drops little red blobs on the ground you should avoid. Pyromancer will cast Cinderburst occasionally which will have to be interrupted as it does a pretty hefty amount of damage.
The last boss is Emberlord Ereetu who puts red stones on the ground that pulse AoE. The problem is that they stay on the ground. So it’s a DPS race with good tank positioning. You need to manage where they land by having yourself in an area where you can move to a safe zone and not cut yourself off in the future.
Level 50!
Well I finally hit level 50 after some crazy PvP grinding when I ran out of quests again. I’ll give a more precise review soon.
