The Grand Experiment (Day 194)

Hopefully I'm going to be able to start up a couple different games soon. I'm still playing Rift very regularly but I don't have a lot to say about it. I still love the diversity and variety of different builds you can try, but since the leveling has slowed down so much, I'm not unlocking new stuff at nearly the rate I was before. I'm getting closer and closer to level 50. Once that happens I'll be able to try out the expansion zones and content; I'll probably write about that.

A friend of mine is about to finish Bravely Default and once he does he's going to let me borrow it. I'm pretty excited to try it since it's a new IP from Square Enix and really pays tribute to classic Final Fantasy. I'm sure I'll like it a lot and write about it extensively. I've also been considering playing FFXII-2 since I've owned it literally since it came out and have never touched it. I liked a lot of aspects of FFXII, but the plot and characters weren't my cup of tea. The new FFXIII title, Lightning Returns, looks really interesting, but I likely won't be able to try that out for some time.

I'd also really like to get back to Vagrant Story, but with Bravely Default coming my way soon, that might not necessarily happen. It's a great game but I feel like I'm getting distracted from it. I feel compelled to amass more and more gold in Rift until I can afford the Storm Legion souls and experiment with them. I'm already swimming with ideas about the Tactician soul for my rogue. I'm experimenting right now with a heavy sustain build that makes me invincible while soloing. Unlike World of Warcraft, quest mobs can occasionally pose a threat. Instead of building for maximum damage, I feel like it makes more sense to build so that you can continue questing nonstop--which requires an excessive amount of healing.

I'm trying out a hybrid of Bard and Rifstalker at the moment, with all "increased healing" passive skills taken. I get passive healing after every kill and every time I planeshift (teleport), as well as benefiting from a constant heal over time in Motif of Regeneration. When things get dicey, I can start using Coda of Restoration instead of a damaging finisher and I also have access to Defer Death, a long cooldown survivability spell that shields me for 50% of my maximum health when I would otherwise receive a killing blow. This usually gives me enough time to heal back up. My damage isn't terrible, either. Although I don't have the enormous burst damage I had as Nightblade, I have serviceable sustained damage that doesn't slow down my questing too much.