MEAD: RIFT’s Mentoring System
By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist
As we get closer to 1.9 (hint, it’s this week!) more information is being revealed about some of the fantastic things we can expect to see. On Monday June 18th more information was released about the Mentoring system which is set to really change the world. On Wednesday, just a few short days later we got to see it in action live via Twitch.tv during a live stream hosted by the loveable Elrar and the lovely Dahanese. Watching it was a bit on the silly side because it really just felt like we were watching someone play the game. Which is exactly what we were doing. The great thing though is we got to see the screen that all the magic happens on.
So, how does it work?
Right click on your portrait
Select “Set Ascended Mentor Level”
Put in the level you want to play at.
Play.
This allows you to set your own level of challenge. Finding something too easy? Lower your level a couple numbers and suddenly everything is a whole lot harder. There is one limitation though. You can only mentor down to a level 5 levels below your current level or further. This means that for now at least the mentoring level cap is set to 45.
The folks at Trion also went through some extra special effort to make this an easy and painless task. If you’re grouped with someone who is 5 levels lower than you they’ve made it so you can click on their portrait and match their level. In addition if you join an Instant Adventure in a zone that is lower than your current level by five it will, as they say, automagically mentor you down to the appropriate level.
But how does it actually work? Trion went to great lengths to make sure your gear, stats, pets and abilities all scale accurately to the appropriate level. They did warn that you may still feel a little bit too powerful for the level you’re at. But the great thing about that is you can just drop yourself down a few more levels and magic! Everything is harder.
Why did they do this?
Well, there are a few answers to that. But basically it comes down to rewards, content and giving zones that have been long abandoned by the 50 crowd new life.
How often have you seen Silverwood or Freemarch completely overrun by a zone event that is going ignored except by a few people who are actually at level? How many times have you been standing in the Manufactory and seen that the Meridian Gate is under attack from some planar creatures and just ignored it? Why would you do it? The reward for the time spent is tiny, if you’re lucky you might get 2 planarite and a bunch of lowbies complaining you killed it before they could get there. Well no more! Now you can fight alongside your lowbie allies without frustration and get rewards that are appropriate to the level you actually are. Not the level you’ve mentored down to.
I can tell you from personal experience that it is impossible to experience everything in Telara before you reach 50. I started Leliah on day one of the headstart, played through the quests, closed a good number of rifts, and took on every planar creature I saw. On top of all that I played the world events faithfully but when it came down to it I ended up having to skip several zones worth of quests just because I was always outleveling things! I found it insanely frustrating and had always planned on going back to the places I left off to finish them. The one thing that always held me back though was the fact that I would be basically wasting my time. There would be no reward for all my hard work. Besides knowing the full story that is. Now I’m glad I kept putting it off! This will give Leliah a new life beyond crafting and the occasional pvp since I’m not into raiding.
So, since we are all expecting 1.9 to hit the live shards next week this is going to be my final reminder to everyone. Spend those world event currencies! Specifically the Otherworldly Sourcestone, Ancient Golden Dragon Egg Shells, and Rune King’s Seals. The things you can purchase with these will be disappearing from the World Event Merchant and this will make them completely useless. In 1.10 the same will happen with Dragon Tears and Magma Opals. I know, that leaves a few out. Those are the ones that are part of yearly events that will happen again and again. So keep those! The ones to keep are: Unique Snowflakes, Glass Beads, Carnival Prize Tickets and the currency from the upcoming summer event. In 1.9 the world event currencies will also be added to the regular currency screen, making them much easier to manage.
There you have it then. Everything you could possibly need to know about mentoring before you actually get your hands on it. At this point though its only a matter of days before you can try it out on your own. I’d love to hear what you think of it so head on over to the OnRPG forums and find this article in the Only @OnRPG section and leave me your thoughts!
