Activating my Rift account.

If anyone still plays, please let me know.

Big Dave of TGN features my 38 Warlock / 25 Pyromancer / 3 Archmage build in his weekly “Warfronts Show”.

I was completely unaware of his selection to showcase this particular build.  Needless to say, it was very entertaining to watch.

Thanks again for the recognition!

For those of you that may have missed it, I started a thread regarding Spark in the Classes of Telara Forums.

http://forums.riftgame.com/rift-general-discussions/classes-telara/284661-new-most-over-powered-thing-rift-1-6-a.html

My Response:

The premise of this thread was to point out an ability that could potentially tip the scale of balance.  Spark in conjuntion with a build based around instant abilities that in effect increases charge may not have been conceived by developers.

Simply possessing the ability Spark will not transform an average player to an elite player.  However, building up charge which may or may not have been intended does perceivably give a player an advantage.

I have always been an advocate for fair gameplay across all classes and ranks.  I believe I have an innate ability to identify things or abilities that could be deemed over powered.

2 months before the nerf to Blood Thirsty, I wrote this article:

http://www.dissb.com/most-over-power…-blood-thirsty

2 months before the stealth nerf to Mighty Quickening Brews, I wrote this article:

http://www.dissb.com/118

I also was an advocate well before the actual nerf of Devouring Shadows not because people were abusing it with 51 Warlock, but because it had no cooldown or travel time and could be used as an instant finisher.

I have been granted some free time by Trion, and am going to give back through feedback what I feel are important issues.

As for you Bleedz, up until now I have been a huge fan of yours and had a ton of respect for you, always exciting to see you in warfronts because it would mean a good fight.  It is unfortunate you feel a need to slander my name publicly.  What have I ever done to you?  Is it really a popularity contest for you?     

The more I play with this 38 Warlock / 25 Pyromancer / 3 Archmage the more I realize just how over powered Spark is, which reduces your GCD by 0.5 seconds.  A normal mage GCD is 1.5 seconds, so a 0.5 second reduction equals a 33% reduction which is very significant.  Over powered is a pretty bold statement to make and may not be true for other builds, but for my particular build it is insane.  This build primarily utilizes an array of instant based spells along with Cinder Burst or Fireball proc’d by Opportunity.

Basically, you can cast 4 instant spells in 4 seconds compared to your target without Spark who can only cast 3 instant based spells in 4.5 seconds.  That alone is a huge advantage over any opponent, but it doesn’t end there.  Because you are casting spells at an incredibly rapid rate you are thus increasing the rate at which your charge builds up by a little more than 33%.  Any ability with a cast time will decrease this amount, hence the reason I do not cast Fireball unless instant.  Now throw in Magical Affinity which increases the amount of charge your spells generate by 25% gives you a whopping 58% increase.

Imagine if the spell description for Spark read:

• Reduces your GCD by 33% and increases the amount of charge your spells generate by 33%.

Sounds great, but what is one supposed to do with all that charge?  Defile is an excellent DOT to consume charge but does not outpace the outrageous increase.  Before playing this spec, I never realized Internalize Charge does not have a cool down which means you can keep toggling it on and off once you have charge built up.  Hmm, increase all damage dealt by the Mage by 20% every 10 seconds or so?  Sounds pretty OP to me.

The real issue or challenge with this build is trying to keep up with Internalize Charge and be completely efficient with your charge.

With 1 day left on my subscription to Rift, I found out there are other essences from the PVP Notoriety Merchant that you could purchase.  There is a box you can toggle in the bottom left hand corner “show filtered items” that enables you to see all items sold.  To my surprise, the cleric essences are not class specific and are far better than the blue essences for mages.

PVP Sigil Total Stats

Battlemaster’s Sigil:

• Soothsayer’s Storm - Mage
• Soothsayer’s Fury - Mage
• Clairvoyant’s Scorn - Mage
• Archangelic’s Blessing - Cleric
• Archangelic’s Grace - Cleric
• Exemplar’s Umbrage - Cleric

As of Rift 1.6, these are the essences you should all be shooting for.