MEAD: 1.8: Fishing and Surviving in Telara

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

 

1.8 is upon us at last! And there are so many new things that if I wanted to list them all I would be better off just copying the patch notes here and calling it a day. But what a shame that would be! That wouldn’t do justice to the amazing content that has come out. Now unfortunately I don’t have a character to play the new dungeon on because raids aren’t really my thing so I’m not really up to the standards required to complete it. But it looks beautiful. The thing I’m really passionate about in RIFT is the crafting system. For the first time since the release of RIFT we have new professions.

 

 

Fishing

Fishing, it’s well…fishing. You get a pole to start with and a short chain of quests to get you started. There are two types of places you can fish: deep water and shallow. There are different types of fish in each area as well. Figuring out where the boundary between deep and shallow water is can be a bit tricky at first. But I found that in shallow water you can stand and in deep water you are swimming. The handy thing there is you can stand in shallow water to get closer to the deep water. Fish can be caught in just about any water but finding the scattered schools of fish will increase your chances of catching fish instead of junk.

 

 

But there are more things to catch than just fish! You can also catch artifacts, some of which are brand new collections. There are 27 new collections to be exact, which already has my inner artifact collector itching to stand around fishing all day. From time to time you can even get lucky and reel in a crate or box of sunken treasure. Inside is some money, anywhere from 10 gold to 7 platinum depending on your skill level and where you’re fishing. Finally, it does happen unfortunately but sometimes all you bring up is a bit of seaweed or some scales from a fish. These are worth virtually nothing and have no value in crafting or anywhere else.

 

 

As with just about everything else in RIFT there are achievements for fishing. There are 24 of them in total. The majority of them are for catching all the various types of fish in zones and around the world. Some are for finishing artifact collections, finding all the types of sunken treasure and getting to be the ultimate fisher.

 

 

So where does the actual crafting part of this come in? Well in order to get bigger and better fish. You need new poles and lures. You don’t have to go to any special station to make these. However you do need to keep your old pole to use in the creation of your next pole. Each level of pole will only accept lures that are within a certain range or lower. The ultimate pole is the Lucky Fishing Pole which will take any lure and guarantees you never get any trash. Every lure comes with a benefit of some kind. The first one you’re introduced to is the Irresistible Water Snail which reduces your chance to catch trash. The best lure which you can only use at a skill level of 300 is the Rare Artifact Attractor. It improves your chances of catching a rare artifact, but only in certain zones.

 

 

So what do you do with the fish you catch? You can’t just eat them straight out of the water as that would be slimy and gross. Well you have two options. Either you use them in recipes for the survival profession (I’ll talk about that next) or give them to the Fish Exchange in several zones. In return for a few fish they’re looking for they will either give you more notoriety with the local faction or you can opt for a tackle box which has some lures in it for you to use.

 

 

Survival

There are a few things I’ve always wondered about RIFT. Where do we sleep at night? How do we feed ourselves when everything we kill seems to be tainted or touched by a plane. This profession answers those questions. For the first time we’re able to cook and make our own bedding. This profession compliments fishing by giving us something to do with some of those fish we catch. The great thing about the food is that it all actually does something! It heals, regenerates your mana and all sorts of different things. Bedrolls and tents are used to replenish your rested xp. So you don’t have to worry about going back to your potentially lag heavy capital every time you log off. Just like fishing you don’t have to go to a station to do the crafting for this. Survival is a bit more straight forward than fishing but still just as fun. Leveling them up together at the same time is highly recommended. The beautiful thing I didn’t mention about Fishing or Survival is that they don’t count as two of your three allowed crafting skills.

 

 

There have been a few small additions to the game which are too fantastic not to talk about but too small to make an entire article of. My favorite that I discovered while wandering around is Mustafa. Back in September Trion released a video advertising the Ascend a Friend program. It was suspiciously similar to some beloved commercials which were a huge hit online.

 

 

 

Well now this has taken the leap into the game! I found them standing next to the gate to Meridian and you can even talk to our good friend Mustafa. He says pretty much the same things as in the video, with a few minor exceptions. Still, seeing him in game made me laugh like I’ve never laughed before.

 

 

There is also a new event going on right now which has to do with the further fight with the planes of earth and fire. We’re only in phase one right now. This time instead of covering each week as it happens I’m going to save it up until the end and do a big review of how it went, what happened and anything else that is important. Some exciting things have come out. Come back later this month when I’ll discuss the leaderboards and the guild finder tool!