So you want to join the ranks of Mage healing.  I won’t kid you, it’s a tough job that’s made even more tough by only having a couple direct healing spells.  While you could be a good dungeon healer you will likely play a support healer in raids.  This isn’t a knock against Mage healers, we are very good at pumping out group heals, but keeping a tank up during massive pulse damage can be tricky with little to no margin for error.

So with all the challenges that a Mage has to overcome when healing what spec makes it easier and how can a Mage go from being a good healer to a great one?  Well, most of the time you will find that those Mages who are good at healing know all the fights like the back of their hand and, more importantly, they know how to manage their cooldowns and time their direct healing abilities properly.  While the timing and management of cooldowns are an art form that will take a fair bit of practice to master we can take a look at how you might want to spec out your Mage souls, what macros to have available, and a general rotation of some spells.
 

I’ve been working on a DPS spec for level 60 dungeons.  The one found below has moderate mobility and very good DPS without having to worry about controlling a pet.  I never like to quote DPS numbers because it varies by equipment, mob/encounter type, etc. but for those that are interested I can usually get at least 7K sustained DPS in an expert level 60 dungeon against a boss with a fair bit of movement mechanics.

Please post up your questions and comments on this build.  I won’t pretend to have all the answers so if you see something that might work a bit better in the rotation, point distribution, or anything else then speak up. The only way we will all learn to get the most out of our class is if we share ideas, macros, and tactics.

Regulos is coming, and he has a colossal, annihilating axe to grind with the Ascended. Starting Dec. 12, raiders can face off with the Destroyer in a 20-player raid that spans the planes of existence.

The new raid included in RIFT 2.1, Eternal Eclipse, chronicles the Queen of Storms’ flight from Frozen Tempest and pits Ascended against Regulos at the threshold of Telara. While celebrating victories against the Storm Legion during festive Fae Yule, players will be tasked with the unimaginable – journeying to the Plane of Death and claiming final victory against the Destroyer himself.

Trion’s well on their way to continuing their goal of frequent content dates even after the recent launch of Storm Legion. RIFT Patch 2.1, also known as Endless Eclipse, will be released on live servers on December 12th:

Messengers race from Morban with grave news: Regulos readies an apocalyptic return to Telara. Agents of the Endless Court have collected his shattered essence, selected a host, and prepared a portal to the Plane of Death. The Devourer of Worlds is coming, and unlike Crucia, who offered salvation for submission, he wants only to annihilate the Ascended, their world, and all that lies beyond.

Endless Eclipse will feature Storm Legion’s second 20-man raid, Endless Eclipse, which Rift Junkies got a chance to preview during the expansion’s beta. The patch will also bring a little cheer to our faction capitols with this year’s updated Fae Yule holiday event. Level 60 players will also be able to experience iconic Storm Legion lore (hi, Crucia!) in the new Chronicle, A Hero Rises.

For more information, please see Trion’s official release announcement and RIFT 2.1′s information page.

It was Storm Legion’s second beta test last weekend, and RiftJunkies was there to get the inside scoop! We joined Community Manager James Nichols, better known to us as Elrar, for a tour of some of the new zones, raids, dungeons, and Dimensions.

Regulos is one creepy dude. We already kind of knew that, of course: players meet him for the first time within their first few levels when he heralds the end of the world. But once you enter Chez Regulos inside the new Endless Eclipse raid you quickly realize you’re dealing with the dragon god of Death on a whole different scale.

Trion’s announcement of their first expansion brought along a lot of exciting and grand changes. Of course, along with all the innovations such as Behemoth Colossi, Dimensions; Trion’s take on housing, the exciting new type of Hunt Rifts as well as cosmetics such as capes.

Naturally, Trion brings more of the same in their massive expansion. Two massive new zones, effectively tripling the land size they shipped with. New Souls for each calling and 10 more levels to enjoy them all the more. With these come some of the more standard things such as achievements, mounts, artifacts, pets, titles.

However, we can’t forget about our instanced Player vs Environment content. The new dungeons and raids coming out seem very interesting. We’ve seen a few in the E3 Demo, these were exactly the ones that were datamined before. Most likely since they were the most ready. If you look back a little further, along with the original Infernal Dawn datamining, we saw some concepts under the name of ‘Dream Hive’. Possibly this is a new dungeon we’ll be seeing in Storm Legion as well. Even though the name doesn’t appear to be very ‘stormy’ to me.

UPDATE 5/13/12: New Guild joins the streaming gallery: Imperium of Steampike EU. See the stream after the break!

RIFT Junkies is inviting all guilds who are working their way through Infernal Dawn to stream their content on the front page of the website! If you and your guild are interested in doing this, please send an email to Draegan@Rerollz.com with the following information about your guild:

• Your guild name and server/region
• You guild raid schedule
• Link to your stream and/or embeddable code
• Link to your guild website

What we’ll do is list all the guilds below after the break and embed their stream. We’ll attempt to keep a live stream on top of the post at all times, schedule depending. If we get a large group of guilds with conflicting raiding schedules, we’ll rotate them up top as much as possible. Keep checking this post updates

CONTINUE READING FOR A FULL LIST OF STREAMS!

RIFT has a decently-sized raiding crew, and there’s a good reason why– Trion’s raids are large, expansive, beautiful, and for the most part, contain some pretty awesome fights. The game’s raiding community is made up of all types of players– those who enjoy a more casual approach to raiding and scheduling raids, those who enjoy the competitive raiding scene, and all kinds of folks in between. With Infernal Dawn (ID) out, and a large portion of those raiders delving deep into the new fights, there’s one large, looming problem that multiple people from multiple groups have experienced– Infernal Dawn, so far, is just too easy.

This is a problem, and not just a problem for the “hardcore” community, that is, the players at the top of the food chain, with the maximum amount of planar attunement (PA) and all the best gear from Hammerknell (HK). Many guilds who don’t even consider themselves hardcore or serious are having the same experience. The fights in ID so far simply don’t have the same oomph, the same adrenaline-punched feeling of not knowing whether this attempt will be the one, the feeling of knowing those couple hours of wipes were worth it after downing a tough boss and listening to the guild explode over voice chat.

That feeling’s pretty damn amazing, and a large part of the reason most raiders enjoy raiding. Hammerknell had a ton of fights that produced those feelings, and many players were expecting to feel the same in ID. Guilds spent months upon months farming HK, farming PA, and building just the right raid force. And now they’re finding themselves a bit underwhelmed, a bit discouraged, and quite confused.

The folks over at Trion gave us an exclusive screenshot of the Maelforge encounter from RIFT’s upcoming brand-new 20 man Raid coming soon. Do you think you’ll be able to slay the dragon?

Check out the latest shots from Infernal Dawn, the latest Raid to hit RIFT coming in Patch 1.8.