Lyranne
New Member
Basically I thought for those that may try the game out, it would be helpful to have a quick, player experience based order of difficulty for the four callings, and in turn their 8 souls regarding leveling, and generally getting things done, so without delay:
Easiest: Rogue. (easiest soul I found was Assassin or Ranger). Your main stat is Dexterity, and if you're a tank, obviously Stamina.
Moderate: Mage. (Chloromancer or Warlock are the ones I have found easiest) Intelligence is great for mages, and they tend to have monstrous manapools.
Moderate: Cleric. (Inquisitor and Shaman seem most efficient, as said below, none of the specs aside from healing are particularly hard to level). Clerics rely on Wisdom for much of their souls, though probably have the most varied assortment for what would be considered important secondary stats. Certainly healers need the Intelligence, but Justicars need stamina. None really need Dexterity or Strength, though technically Druids and shamans (and I suppose the tanks) benefit from them.
Hardest: Warrior. (BM and probably a tanking spec are good choices, though for speed, Paragon and Champion are great. Strength is supposed to be your main stat, but for some souls Dexterity is possibly more important for the critical hit chance. I personally haven't really felt it's that much of an issue, but some really like to go for specific builds that require it.
Rogue.
Mostly because Assassin and a few others have some very nifty abilities that allow you to control the enemy in a variety of ways. Each soul has it's own strengths and weaknesses, and with combinations of them, you can even be a full-time stealth Marksman, which is pretty nifty. A lot of fun to play, and as said, easy to level.
Bard is a great support soul, and in the beginning is very good for leveling, especially mixed with a ranger for thier pet. If you put very few points into the latter however, you'll quickly find the pet will become useless. Hard to dies as a bard at high level, but also hard to kill your enemy (well, slow)
For more of a challange, try leveling Riftstalker (the rogue tank), or have a blast (literally) with Saboteour. The latter plays unlike anything I've ever seen in any other game. It's explodelicious(tm)!
Mage:
I found this easy as I leveled Chloro (admittedly with a friend) and so never really had an issue with health. When we went all crazytown, I could not only keep us both alive, but also aid in destroying the enemy. Chloromancer (healer/support soul) is like, in James' words, 'a Shadow-priest on crack, times ten' (or thereabouts - he said it back in March). They heal their allies through most of their attacks, but as of a patch sometime ago, they also have a heal they can use constantly.
They are a great soul to play as, much like most of the ones in the game.
Warlock is easy, and fun.
They have some rather more interesting and challenging souls, such as Archon (James can give better details of that) and Elementals are very cool.... Boom boom.
Cleric:
Really this and mage are about the same, but I find my mage is just that little bit meaner.
Inquisitor is a Life-based caster that does some pretty nifty damage, and it's main ability heals you for 90% of the damage. Very nice to level as.
Justicar (the support/tank cleric soul) is great for questing, too. Very hard for things to kill you, albeit at the cost of you not doing particularly high damage in comparison to other souls. They also have a unique resource called 'Conviction' that is used for a fair few things, such as a tanking shield block, a group heal, single-target heal, self heal, and something else that escpaes me at this time.
Cabalist is a multi-mob hitting caster that also has a unique resource called 'Decay' and this is used by a variety of spells to inflict some nasty damage, restore mana, health, and/or make groups of enemies cry.
Shaman is a great leveling soul. You have some very nice multi-target attacks that do a -lot- of damage, a nice wounter heal to critical hits, a lovely addition to your own criticals with the tasty 'Jolt' which does very nice damage, and makes the soul a lot of fun for crit loving people.
Druid is similar to shaman in that's it's melee based, but has the addition (or detriment) of a pet. Though unlike the Ranger, the pet is either a dps assist (the Satyr), or a healer/slightly damaging faerie (cute girl with a giant sunflower that she shoots lazorz with). I'd say most of these are pretty easy to level with, and none really felt so much better to level with than another. They're all fun, and aside from typical pet issues, not even druids were bad.
As a challenge, I suppose Justicar tanking, or one of the three healing souls would make for an interesting leveling adventure.
Warrior: The only calling that doesn't have a ranged soul, though two of them at least can hit up to 20 metres without worry. Hardest for me, simply because of the fact they've no heals, which is understandable, but means a lot of stops for health regain, and so on. Not actually hard, just not fast. Warriors in Rift have up to three attack points that don't expire until you use one of their finishers. They even stay when you switch souls, which is nice).
Paragon is a DW soul that relies on follow-up attacks, that do rather a lot of damage, and tend to have a fair amount of avoidance, and a propensity to make enemies dead. They have a charge attack, some nice cooldowns, and are generally a lot of fun.
Riftblades have a very nice ability that allows them to teleport to their enemy, and once you reach 50, they can have the option to have a chance for the cooldown to be reset. Not uncommon to see a Riftblade - or rather not - as it's leapt behind the enemy again. Fun to play, and fire based damage make them a cool soul.
Beastmasters are probably the easiest warrior soul to level, as their pet can tank for them, in addition to gaining a heal for yourself and the pet. They're bleed based damage, so they don't as such hit for a lot, but they still kill pretty quickly.
Champions are your typical two-hander, charging in and killing warrior. They have some nice abilities, and hit like trucks.
The tanking souls I have very little experience with, though know that each tree has a different focus; Paladin is very block based, whilst Reaver is dots and such. Voidknight is strong against casters, and so combining these souls is the best way to balance yourself out. Considering how many specs you can have saved (currently up to five with purchasing), it's not uncommon for a tank to change to a more specialised build for a specific encounter, certainly when gearing up, and needing to survive (and not look silly when they get eaten by beams).
I'd like to add that others in the guild might like to add their own thoughts as to good leveling souls/builds, and good ones for when you hit fifty and start gearing (as is commonly the case, what is best in the greatest gear, isn't always the best when in quest greens).
Srry that it's a bit long, but I hope it's helpful in some way.
Easiest: Rogue. (easiest soul I found was Assassin or Ranger). Your main stat is Dexterity, and if you're a tank, obviously Stamina.
Moderate: Mage. (Chloromancer or Warlock are the ones I have found easiest) Intelligence is great for mages, and they tend to have monstrous manapools.
Moderate: Cleric. (Inquisitor and Shaman seem most efficient, as said below, none of the specs aside from healing are particularly hard to level). Clerics rely on Wisdom for much of their souls, though probably have the most varied assortment for what would be considered important secondary stats. Certainly healers need the Intelligence, but Justicars need stamina. None really need Dexterity or Strength, though technically Druids and shamans (and I suppose the tanks) benefit from them.
Hardest: Warrior. (BM and probably a tanking spec are good choices, though for speed, Paragon and Champion are great. Strength is supposed to be your main stat, but for some souls Dexterity is possibly more important for the critical hit chance. I personally haven't really felt it's that much of an issue, but some really like to go for specific builds that require it.
Rogue.
Mostly because Assassin and a few others have some very nifty abilities that allow you to control the enemy in a variety of ways. Each soul has it's own strengths and weaknesses, and with combinations of them, you can even be a full-time stealth Marksman, which is pretty nifty. A lot of fun to play, and as said, easy to level.
Bard is a great support soul, and in the beginning is very good for leveling, especially mixed with a ranger for thier pet. If you put very few points into the latter however, you'll quickly find the pet will become useless. Hard to dies as a bard at high level, but also hard to kill your enemy (well, slow)
For more of a challange, try leveling Riftstalker (the rogue tank), or have a blast (literally) with Saboteour. The latter plays unlike anything I've ever seen in any other game. It's explodelicious(tm)!
Mage:
I found this easy as I leveled Chloro (admittedly with a friend) and so never really had an issue with health. When we went all crazytown, I could not only keep us both alive, but also aid in destroying the enemy. Chloromancer (healer/support soul) is like, in James' words, 'a Shadow-priest on crack, times ten' (or thereabouts - he said it back in March). They heal their allies through most of their attacks, but as of a patch sometime ago, they also have a heal they can use constantly.
They are a great soul to play as, much like most of the ones in the game.
Warlock is easy, and fun.
They have some rather more interesting and challenging souls, such as Archon (James can give better details of that) and Elementals are very cool.... Boom boom.
Cleric:
Really this and mage are about the same, but I find my mage is just that little bit meaner.
Inquisitor is a Life-based caster that does some pretty nifty damage, and it's main ability heals you for 90% of the damage. Very nice to level as.
Justicar (the support/tank cleric soul) is great for questing, too. Very hard for things to kill you, albeit at the cost of you not doing particularly high damage in comparison to other souls. They also have a unique resource called 'Conviction' that is used for a fair few things, such as a tanking shield block, a group heal, single-target heal, self heal, and something else that escpaes me at this time.
Cabalist is a multi-mob hitting caster that also has a unique resource called 'Decay' and this is used by a variety of spells to inflict some nasty damage, restore mana, health, and/or make groups of enemies cry.
Shaman is a great leveling soul. You have some very nice multi-target attacks that do a -lot- of damage, a nice wounter heal to critical hits, a lovely addition to your own criticals with the tasty 'Jolt' which does very nice damage, and makes the soul a lot of fun for crit loving people.
Druid is similar to shaman in that's it's melee based, but has the addition (or detriment) of a pet. Though unlike the Ranger, the pet is either a dps assist (the Satyr), or a healer/slightly damaging faerie (cute girl with a giant sunflower that she shoots lazorz with). I'd say most of these are pretty easy to level with, and none really felt so much better to level with than another. They're all fun, and aside from typical pet issues, not even druids were bad.
As a challenge, I suppose Justicar tanking, or one of the three healing souls would make for an interesting leveling adventure.
Warrior: The only calling that doesn't have a ranged soul, though two of them at least can hit up to 20 metres without worry. Hardest for me, simply because of the fact they've no heals, which is understandable, but means a lot of stops for health regain, and so on. Not actually hard, just not fast. Warriors in Rift have up to three attack points that don't expire until you use one of their finishers. They even stay when you switch souls, which is nice).
Paragon is a DW soul that relies on follow-up attacks, that do rather a lot of damage, and tend to have a fair amount of avoidance, and a propensity to make enemies dead. They have a charge attack, some nice cooldowns, and are generally a lot of fun.
Riftblades have a very nice ability that allows them to teleport to their enemy, and once you reach 50, they can have the option to have a chance for the cooldown to be reset. Not uncommon to see a Riftblade - or rather not - as it's leapt behind the enemy again. Fun to play, and fire based damage make them a cool soul.
Beastmasters are probably the easiest warrior soul to level, as their pet can tank for them, in addition to gaining a heal for yourself and the pet. They're bleed based damage, so they don't as such hit for a lot, but they still kill pretty quickly.
Champions are your typical two-hander, charging in and killing warrior. They have some nice abilities, and hit like trucks.
The tanking souls I have very little experience with, though know that each tree has a different focus; Paladin is very block based, whilst Reaver is dots and such. Voidknight is strong against casters, and so combining these souls is the best way to balance yourself out. Considering how many specs you can have saved (currently up to five with purchasing), it's not uncommon for a tank to change to a more specialised build for a specific encounter, certainly when gearing up, and needing to survive (and not look silly when they get eaten by beams).
I'd like to add that others in the guild might like to add their own thoughts as to good leveling souls/builds, and good ones for when you hit fifty and start gearing (as is commonly the case, what is best in the greatest gear, isn't always the best when in quest greens).
Srry that it's a bit long, but I hope it's helpful in some way.
