http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/431/view/forums/thread/299571/page/1

others here may have a key from the newsletter.. i dont get i so i dont have any.

 

-----signature-----

I wish the beta weekend lasted for the entirety of this weekend. Headed to friends house for a couple days and we can't find focus in WoW. Patch notes suck too hard. Guess we have minecraft...

 

-----signature-----

Festus, thanks! That link had a key that worked (and many that were already used up).

I have now applied the key!

Am I now waiting for an e-mail for the current / next beta event? That's my rudimentary understanding from what I have read anyway.

--Sly

 

-----signature-----

Just got my pvp soul. Now to see what it does!

 

-----signature-----

yeah, log back into your account on the website and see if you can agree to the EULA and start downloading though.

 

-----signature-----

Here is a quote from one of the devs about pvp/valor and balance:

New Visible Stats. Along with the new character sheet, you're going to see two stats that were previously not being displayed: Toughness and Valor.

Toughness is a PvE Tanking stat. Its purpose is provide a defensive upgrade path in upper tiers of PvE content, and is one more way to ensure that tanks can progress in PvE without being broken-overpowered in PvP due to their PvE gear. (PvE gear is still very useful, just not overpowering.)

Just like high end casters need Focus and physical DPS need some amount of Hit, high end tanks need Toughness to deal with more difficult monsters. All that said, Toughness, Focus and Hit make up a small amount of the overall stat distribution that you’ll see on your PvE items.

Valor is a PvP damage reduction stat. It's been in the game for quite some time and is now showing up on the new character sheet and in the tooltips for items that provide it.

Our game supports both PvP and PvE progression. A stat like Valor gives us an important tool to use in tuning the high end of those progressions.

NPCs and Players are not balanced identically, nor should they be. The pace of play is very different between the two styles. Fun PvE and fun PvP are generally two very different things. Nerfing PvE abilities for the sake of PvP, as other games have found themselves forced to do, is something that we're trying to avoid wherever possible,

In providing a good PvP progression, we need to ensure that we can provide good rewards, without forcing people to play a part of the game they might not care to.

PvE gear remains competitive in PvP, and PvP gear remains competitive in PvE. It just won't be a trump card in the opposite style of play. You shouldn't expect to need to "grind" two full sets of gear just to have fun.

A stat like Valor is one more tool we can use to ensure that, for instance, the ideal PvP rewards do not become the de-facto best PvE Tanking rewards in the game. (Without Valor, significant PvP survivability also becomes PvE survivability…and, conversely, the best PvE DPS loot would become the de-facto best PvP DPS loot). We’d effectively be forcing people to gear up one way just to succeed at the other, since NPCs are balanced much differently than players.

Some people think these are a great idea, and others are less than thrilled due to negative experiences with related-sounding mechanics in other games that provide E-Sport style PvP, which we have intentionally not included and do not have plans to. Other games have their issues to design for, and we have ours. The two are definitely different.

Q: Am I going to have to "grind" two sets of gear the entire time?

A: No. Gear from each kind of play is competitive in the other side. It's just not overpowering to the other side. It remains a great head start. We expect that the highest end PvP and PvE'ers will choose to care, but the majority won't find that its existence impacts their gameplay in a negative way, since we are not balancing the game around any kind of E-Sport style Arenas, as other games have.

Q: Why can't you balance everything around Health?

A: Players are infinitely smarter than creatures, and abilities are used in both PvE and PvP. Having PvP damage reduction be purely about health would create a situation where almost necessitate PvE tanks to have to gear up via PvP. We are primarily trying to ensure that people who choose to only take part in one style of play aren't "forced" to take part in the other.

We like to think that we've so far been pretty good at reacting once things have proven to work or not work in Rift. As with any other mechanic in the game, we'll be keeping an eye on it. If it's making the game not fun, it will be addressed.


Here's what's on deck for future Betas:

Activated Racial Abilities. We know that some of them are overpowered and bring the whole concept out of whack. Our original idea was: "let's make sure these things are really fun." In our doing this, they've almost turned into a powergamer IQ test. It's not good for anyone if we effectively lock a race to a given play style. (e.g. all Tanks must be one race and all DPS must be another, or you're Doing It Wrong). Expect updates to the racials following this beta.

 

-----signature-----

woot grats Sprawl! I'm 400 away

 

-----signature-----

Q: Am I going to have to "grind" two sets of gear the entire time?


A: No. Gear from each kind of play is competitive in the other side.
It's just not overpowering to the other side. It remains a great head
start. We expect that the highest end PvP and PvE'ers will choose to
care, but the majority won't find that its existence impacts their
gameplay in a negative way, since we are not balancing the game around
any kind of E-Sport style Arenas, as other games have.

lol!

 

-----signature-----

Ouch, low blow rift, low blow

 

-----signature-----

Well hey, at least certain fanboys are getting their answers!

 

-----signature-----