The Druid class seems to be a little lost and confused, these days. Originally designed as a melee pet class, Druid melee DPS falls consistently behind Shaman DPS, and while the Druid’s Satyr can pump out some decent AoE damage, the faerie pet, even the greater faerie, doesn’t put out enough healing to warrant it a spot as anything except a vanity pet in a weird-looking costume.

Adding to the crisis, Druids have a mixed bag of attacks and abilities that may have originally sounded good on paper, but in reality, aren’t that useful. Balm of the Woods is extremely lackluster for a self-heal with a cooldown. Shield of Oak, like Glacial Shield, is essentially useless except while leveling. Bombard deals decent ranged damage, but deals earth damage, which means it doesn’t have synergy with many other Druid abilities, Shaman abilities, Inquisitor abilities, or Justicar abilities. And most RIFT builds revolve around synergy.

One of the more unique souls in the game is the Bard. It’s a support soul that offers buffs and healing to the group they are through the power of music. There is an ingrained nostalgia with many player with the bard that goes all the way back to Everquest over a decade ago. The class was continued in Vanguard and with the Minstrel in LOTRO. Bards are typically one of those jack-of-all-trades type of classes, usually with a unique subset of skills that can turn the tide of the battle in any group. Regardless of their power they are usually incredibly fun to play and carry their own unique way of doing things.

Unfortunately this is not the case in RIFT. The Bard in RIFT is an uninspired and boring soul to play that offers no special gameplay mechanics nor do they provide any satisfying game feedback that allows the player to feel either special or that they are accomplishing anything. Let is also be known that the purpose of this article is based strictly on PVE-gameplay elements, though many points transition into PVP-gameplay. Also, we are not saying that the buffs Bards bring are insignificant, we are trying to point out the way they are brought to the group is lame.

Welcome to the second part of the cleric calling overview! In this article, I will go over clerics as DPS. We will be covering our four DPS souls in more detail with a focus on PvE. This analysis includes mechanics, play style, build suggestions, and suggestions on DPS rotations or priorities. In addition to analyzing clerics, I will delve into general PvE/PvP DPS practices for beginners. I don’t claim to be the highest authority when it comes to maximizing DPS performance, but I’m not entirely bad myself. I will at least try to start you on the path to being a respectable DPS.

A cleric is a spiritual leader, a paragon of the vigil to which others turn to strengthen them – body and soul. Shielded in your faith, and wielding the might of the vigil with fierce devotion, you charge into battle as you bolster your brethren. They know they can trust you to provide sanctuary from their enemies’ wrath and exact retribution upon those adversaries. Your faith will never falter and your might shall not waver as you guide your allies through the battle for Telara’s fate.

Rogues are silent and efficient killers, relying on their judgment and precision to kill their enemies with sure strikes. Using their skill and dexterity, rogues rely less on their physical strength, and more on knowledge of where to strike to inflict the maximum damage potential, incapacitate, or disable their opponents.

As an ascended, the players have the unique ability to draw upon the souls of fallen Telarans to augment their abilities in combat. At a time, any player may have up to three active souls, and may have up to four saved configurations of souls, called roles, and switch between these easily and quickly while out of combat.

Mages are specialists in long-ranged combat and area of effect attacks that can bring death to any single enemy or group of enemies.

While a knowledgeable mage could potentially be very deadly while in melee range, it is no doubt that a mage is most deadly when keeping their target at the mage’s maximum casting range. A mage would prefer to keep their enemies at range, due to the mage’s lack of armor and health.

This overview contains a detailed look into every aspect of the warrior class.

The warrior’s sword clacks furiously upon his opponent’s armor and stings his ears. Sweat beads upon his brow and he grimaces as he gathers all his might to lunge again. Alas, the weapon is growing heavier in his hands and he misses terribly. His adversary cackles and raises his axe, slicing it through the air with ease, connecting with the warrior’s face and splitting his cheek open. The warrior stumbles backward in shock, touching his fingertips to the wound. Enraged, he squeezes the handle of the weapon in his other hand and dashes toward the smirking axe-wielder, thrusting his sword again. For a moment the warrior closes his eyes and listens, waits, for the clack to come again, but it never does. His eyes open just in time to see the sword plunging through armor, his foe collapsing to the ground.

With the head start starting in just over three weeks, which calling will you playing when the game releases?

MMORPG.com reveals the latest soul, in detail, and this time is a Cleric Soul called the Justicar.

Overview

Justicars are healing clerics who fight shoulder-to-shoulder with their allies in close combat. Conviction builds with each swing of their weapon, bolstering nearby comrades and powering the Justicar’s potent healing magic.

As we know, a new class will be revealed in the upcoming newsletter. Which calling do you think it will fall under? If you’ve been following since E3 you will know that there are two Rogue souls that we saw, the Assassin and Rift Stalker, that have not been officially “revealed”. So the logical answer will be “Rogue”. However we hope that Trion will release a soul of one of the other Callings so we can see something entirely new.

So if you wouldn’t mind, take a second and vote in our Poll with which Calling you think the soul will fall under in the upcoming Newsletter.