Here is the soul planner to play with. Works best in IE.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14031925/rift/index.html#

Basically you will only need one character from each of the four main classes. Warrior, Mage, Rogue, Cleric.
You can mix and match your souls on the fly to tailor your function.

That alone is reason enough for me to switch over. Now understand, I have years of my life tied up in WoW. I run 2 accounts and have 22 lv 80+ guys, at least one of every class, 1/2 mill gold. I am also VERY jaded towards new game hype, however...
Both my WoW accounts are canceled and I have pre-ordered the game and signed up for the 3 month package.
That's how sure I am that Rift will be a winner.

Whereas places like Goldshire and x-roads are completely static the Rift engine allows a NPC to be placed in a town or along side a road one the fly, perhaps just over night for a special reason. On the fly, no taking the entire game offline to downloading an entire zone.
You don't defend Goldshire? Too bad for you, it's in enemy hands till you muster the forces needed to take it back!

The Devs have never said that all classes will be balanced. They have always said just the opposite.
As I don't like to PvP this is not a big deal but I can see myself being drawn into it with the right build or the right class vs being forced to use my normal, every day, PvE centric toon.

With a 90 day subscription I will have plenty of time to check it out and decide which is the better long term game. My WoW accounts will still be sitting here and I am sure they will welcome my money back if I decide the huge changes in Cata do not suck so bad after all.

With a side of mancrush on Ghostcrawler

 

-----signature-----

Sounds like potential fun but I'll still wait at least a month after release until the shine has worn a bit and then see how people are posting about it. Too many games for the past 4 years have never lived up to their potential.

 

-----signature-----

Ran a few Beta's now on it and I am impressed with how well it runs. Last Beta was open to anyone who pre-ordered the CE version so it was a bit crowded but still ran smoothly. I love the customization of a character possiblity, as well as PQ's and as someone noted above, potentially a DAOC realm rank type system. I remember the success of WoW early on was taking the best elements of other MMO's and combining them in a fun lore filled world. I am not sure what Rift's end game is going to be like, but I suspect it will at least get more than it's share of folks to try it. It's fun. Not sure I will leave WoW for it but I am sure I will order it and subscribe initially.

 

-----signature-----

Rift will be a fantastic PVE game. I have severe doubts about PVP.

No developer to date A team or not has yet to be able to balance a class based PVP system. Not a single one...

I doubt Trion will fair any better.

So the game's PVE will need to carry it far.

 

-----signature-----

I have read everything there is avaliable on the web about Rift.

They have never said that PvP will be balanced. That have, in fact, stated that they are NOT going to try and balance PvP.

If you look at the sheer number of combination's of soul trees, it should be obvious that this is an impossible task, to even the most casual of followers of this game.

If you are looking for balanced PvP Rift is not for you.

The players themselves will eventually come out with a set of "best practice" builds, for specific situations, which would happen anyways... I like the idea of turning the players loose in a "free for all" character spec situation.


The mention of RR-like abilities and the character customization are sounding more and more attractive.


Not going to jump right into beta, and the timing on trying it is probably going to be months out for me, depending on when it actually releases.


There's a lot of potential (which also means a lot of ways for it to go horribly wrong.) And as my cynical guildmate says: "ok, what's wrong with it, there's always something the devs get wrong."


Very interested to see how this all plays out.

 

-----signature-----

Newsflash, hero: Trion isn't chasing balanace, because they realize it doesn't exist.

 

-----signature-----

If that is the case then it would be safe to assume the nerf fests that have become the norm in WoW will not take place in Rift.


If so this game will even be better than I anticipated, because for me there is nothing that ruins a game more than nerfs.

Class balance in an MMO with PvP / RvR is a Holy Grail. (Why I loved FPS.)


If they have in essence turned the creation/specification of characters/classes into the "sandbox" (as opposed to the world/gameplay)... I can see this game, in concept, holding players for a long time.


Can I assume that there are ways to respec (albeit for some price or quest or hard to get item)?

 

-----signature-----