The Ranger soul is a multi-faceted choice for players of all skill level. Wielding bow and beast, the ranger is a master archer, but weak in hand-to-hand combat. When played well, a Ranger can dish out a substantial amount of damage. This guide will cover the ins and outs of playing a ranger, and help you get on your way to becoming a better Ranger.

RIFTception - The Official Podcast of Rift Junkies

Hosts: Draegan (Jason) DraeganRJ@twitter, Meeo (William) MeeoRJ@twitter. Guest Host: Xep, Fires of Heaven (Reclaimer-Defiant)

Imagine, for a moment, that you’re in the heat of battle. Allies and enemies are falling all around you, shields and armor clamor upon the ground as the piercing ring of steel shreds your eardrums. Arrows soar past, inches above your head, and spells land so close to you that their very impact rattles your resolve. You’re injured and weakening by the second, your fellow combatants are struggling for survival but victory is so close you can almost taste it. Inch by inch, your side pushes forward. Victory is at hand.

To be a tank is to be a leader, to walk into the jaws of the beast and know precisely when and where to thrust the sword. But for those newer to the tanking role, how does one go about learning these things? No, there aren’t any flow-charts, diagrams, or PowerPoint presentations posted outside dragon caves – no large signs with headers proclaiming, “How to Kill Me.” So, before the dragon’s tail knocks you off your feet and sends you, your sword and shield clattering back down the cliff you just crawled up from – join me after the break for the top 5 tips for PVE tanking.

Warlocks are offensive specialists who embrace the darker forces of entropy and death. From within a cloak of protective shadow, these mages direct deathly energies inexorably consuming their enemies’ lives, and feeding the Warlock on their stolen breath.

Along with the Necromancer, Warlocks are also an easy soul to learn; and with a moderate amount of time and experience with this Soul, you’ll be able to master it. Warlocks benefit from having an arsenal of abilities which focus on damage over time and buffs that increase their damage overall by increasing the Warlock’s spell power, spell crit and damage dealt by spells. Even though Warlock’s don’t carry that punch in burst damage that other Souls in the Mage calling have, they make up for it in survivability via various spells and the ability to put a variety of spells that deal damage over time to as many enemies as you can.

So I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night…

With most souls in RIFT within a calling, they usually have counterparts or at the very least souls that go well together. For example; Druids and Shaman, Necromancers and Warlocks, Champions and Beast Masters, Assassins and Night Blades and the list can go on. You can list many other combinations where the mechanics and game play are very similar and the passives help each other while abilities often go together. One example is the Assassin and Nightblade; both have abilities that increase damage and abilities like Backstab, Hellfire Blades, Poisons, Scourge of Darkness, Dusk Strike and Puncture are both blended in to make a high damaging build. If you read our article on Bards last weak, you know we have some issues with the Bard soul. The main point of this article is that the Bard does not have another soul that can share both in passive talents and active abilities.

And we have a solution.

It’s finally the time to have that talk about tanking as a Cleric! I will go over some tanking basics and examine our only tanking soul, Justicar, to show you what it has to offer. Because we only have one soul for tanking, we do not have as much freedom as a Warrior would have when it comes to setting up a tanking build. Still, being a Cleric does allow us to fulfill pretty much every role, so we can’t really complain too much. Besides, Justicar isn’t that bad a tanking soul.

One of the more unique souls in the game is the Bard. It’s a support soul that offers buffs and healing to the group they are through the power of music. There is an ingrained nostalgia with many player with the bard that goes all the way back to Everquest over a decade ago. The class was continued in Vanguard and with the Minstrel in LOTRO. Bards are typically one of those jack-of-all-trades type of classes, usually with a unique subset of skills that can turn the tide of the battle in any group. Regardless of their power they are usually incredibly fun to play and carry their own unique way of doing things.

Unfortunately this is not the case in RIFT. The Bard in RIFT is an uninspired and boring soul to play that offers no special gameplay mechanics nor do they provide any satisfying game feedback that allows the player to feel either special or that they are accomplishing anything. Let is also be known that the purpose of this article is based strictly on PVE-gameplay elements, though many points transition into PVP-gameplay. Also, we are not saying that the buffs Bards bring are insignificant, we are trying to point out the way they are brought to the group is lame.

As most people are likely aware, the addition of a Dungeon Finder tool to Rift has become quite the hot topic among the community. Those opposed to such an implementation typically cite their former experience with a similar tool and extrapolate that experience into the Rift community which, indeed, leaves a bitter taste in one’s mouth. On the other side of the coin, those in favor of a Dungeon Finer argue that the implementation would alleviate the frustration that many players are suffering when trying to put together groups, which would ultimately benefit the game far more than damage it.

Laughingskull brings you another video, this time showcasing Expert Iron Tombs.