Not sure why Bless is not listed but I must say it looks impressive and the game play doesnt look half bad too.

http://www.neowizgames.com/gstar2012/

I hope to see it added soon.  PS. youtube has a lot of movies on this from trailers to gameplay.  the graphics are amazing lets just hope it plays well and has longevity.

Why do the lengend and other harder to aquire items not have better stats than standard level 80 crafted etc.  Its just a skin by the looks of it.  At level 80 I need a reason other than a skin to spend all that time working on legend or karma gear.  There should also be added bonuses for complete sets.  

Also classes need some balance.  Im an elementalist and I can tell you that almost every melee class can hit much harder than the casters.... which granted owuldnt be so bad if it wasnt for the elementalists having the least Vitality/HP and least armor.    Even the necro fairs better because of the added life drains and perma pets.  eithe boost our HP, or dmg, or allow us perminate pets.  There are some other classes that need a small boost too.

Player housing.  Would love to see it.  Id prefer the ability to plot them down anywhere, however its easier to do instanced based housing.  Or even cooler would be to take a page from wild star and give us floating rocks to build on ;)

I do love the game however there are a few things I do no like about it that makes me want to play less.

First of all I am in all exotics and have pretty much everything I need other than Skins... Now as to the Skins this is the part I dont like.  I dont feel motivated to grind out skins just to look diffrent.  I would rather have items liek legendary or other dungeon gear or karma gear be better than standard exotics.  If I just look diffrent but dont hit harder is it really worth my time?   This is where meh comes in once ou get 80 and all your skills other than skins there is really very few options to do. WvsW. SPVP or PVE some more... but why? what do I get for sinking time in WvsW... woot we won!.. wait what did we win oh right tokens for another skin, or buy some more seige equipment  End game people want to be unquie, and important.  Skins help but anyone can grind out a skin... so what Skill?  Don't get me started on that.   We all know certian classes have larger advatages to others which makes skills not so much required to appear good.

But look at the other side I can walk away and come back not thinking about the monthly fee and inbetween patches here and there things change and you spend more time playing for some fun.  I just been feeling meh about it. perhaps I am narrow focused or been spoiled with other mmo's.    Just my thoughts.

I have played them all. Very few over real world application for objects. A chair. How many of you have seen a world where every chair is just that something you can sit on. Now how many see them in game and can't use it? It’s something simple that adds to an MMO. Why not add the ability to use in game objects as they are meant. Add real world physics so that a chair can be moved, used, and even destroyed. with today’s high-end processors, graphics cards and the future of cloud gaming we have the ability for destructive environments and object manipulation.  It would seem that Advanced 1^st person shooters are moving forward in this but MMO’s seem to lack a lot and your surroundings are mere artwork in a room.   I believe that developers should spend that time looking into real world application of objects.   Think of all the neat things you could do or add to a world.  As a character when you walk into a room and see a desk with drawers, a trunk , candle, sword anything it could be loot or just an item, or even more used for quests or that book you pulled opened a door, or that lamp you tossed that broke released a demon.   The artist has to make the object to put in the world to begin with so why stop there the model is done so the rest is imagination. 

Look back to even older 1990’s when some games were incredibly detailed.  Ultima V is a prime example.  Everything was usable,  you walked into a merchant shop and you could break the glass cases, rob and try to get out before the guards killed you.  This adds another element to the game and make things interesting.  Or what about a bar fight?  Break that bottle over a person, weapons checked at doors by npc chairs the throw could be interesting….

Just some thoughts, would you care for a game that could add this element?

Originally posted by veratutazz

There is no excuse for Sony's lack of security.

  That being said, I am curious to see if Anon rises to the level of being considered a full-fledged 'terrorist organization' after this.

  Reasonable people would have edited the info in such a way as to prove the info n get the point across without leaving a 100% pure data dump.

 

 What Sony did was like leaving their baby in the parking lot in a running car with the doors open

 

 Stupid, stupid, stupid behavior. .. and.... btw.. borderline criminal.

 

 but what the hacker have done is steal that car with the baby and drive it into a lake with the baby still inside while the car sinks and they watch.

  Evil, malicious, narcissistic, antisocial criminal behavior.

 Lol why shoudl Anon be classified as Terrorists when its LuLZ that breeched them.  All Anon did was a DoS attack a few weeks ago.    Expect to see alot more Hacking showing up seeing these groups are now out in numbers showing people who has not secured the networks properly.  I also believe they game warning to Sony a head of time.  Most white hat hackers have talked about these exploites over and over and now that nobody listend and fixed them people are now using them.  I blame the companies.   Whats next the CC companies and Banks... Seeing people even got in to LHM faking a key auth system that just goes to show how unsafe all our stuff is.

Ive been Level 50 for a long time.  I wouldnt say I'm completely bored there is alot I can do if I wanted.  But I spend most my nights in dungeons and weekly raids, and PVP here and there.   I do think that there will have to be something else added soon or we will reach the same point all games that you cap out on where you jsut are meh about it.   I love the whole world / concept but its slowly becoming stale.   I agree that rep/dungeons for gear are ok but doing only that gets to y ou after a while.

Originally posted by erictlewis

What you need to know is they already sent out the invitations for this weeks beta, so if you get the key today your not going to be in the beta for mid week.

 Most likley, the invitations went out yesterday... although I suspect that theyre still maybe some going out over the next 2 days.

Figured some of you who may not have gotten any access yet would like these

27FH-3X6H-RX6H-RLR7-GQRE

JGHP-XHDC-XLL3-KN2X-FQWD

Originally posted by Leucent

I wouldn t say it will fold, but will not even have 100k subs after 4-6 months.

 I think it will hold just fine.  Currently Beta 4 almost all of the servers were full to the point they brought up 2 more on the weekend.  They were soild all weekend.   As to stuff to do in game if you do some looking at what some of the Alpha testers did you will see there is alot more they are not telling us about including things like fishing etc.    The warfronts were not bad at least the 2 we had access too.  The open world PVP was fun reminded me more of WoW pvp server.  There is objective based PVP in the open world as well which is awesome being able to take over locations.

I dunno, I think they will have a steady player base, Tera on the other hand I can see losing subs after 4-6 months simply because its an all out grind fest like Aion ended up being.    Starwars could care less only Scifi players will have interest in that most fantasy people will stay here.   As to Wow players I can see alot jumpoing on board this game has the best of almost all the current mmo's in it and will cater to what people like.

As noted abive the game is chaotic in many forms and the very open Soul system keeps me trying out new builds constantly to make sure I find what I really like... downside you get stuck looking at two or more souls and cant decide what you like better lol.

I love the game cheers,

Braun

Originally posted by Zekiah

Originally posted by DracSchnider

Originally posted by Zekiah

Originally posted by Swanea

People should try forming their own opinions by trying things out rather then letting others do that for you eh?

For people not able to get into beta that "trying things out" will come with a $50+ price tag. I for one and happy to wade through differing opinions to make sure I really want to drop that fifty bucks on a title. So many people take offense to others' opinions for no reason. Some people will buy the game, others won't. No biggie.

 The issue as stated to inform people would be great if you have used factual info rather then fill them with negitive feedback on untrue stuff, or based on how you think the game works.    But seeing I did play the beta and I do know things like rifts are dynamic and anot always static etc that is the only reason why I respond to this thread.  If indeed the game was as you said there may have been some merit.   Now looking at your other posts it sounds like for one that you could barely run the game so how can you base anything on how good things are if you are saying you had around 5fps?   how cna you honeslty tell us that the game sucks if you can't play it with your "new rig that runs 5fps?"    To me that would be like watching a whole movie in slow motion and saying yeah the film was too long, boring the action was terrible slow and painful to watch.

So tell us how you can give an opinion on anything that is legit if you cant even run the game?

That wasn't my review there chief, I was just agreeing with what that poster said. And I don't care to argue about the game engine as I already stated, it makes no difference to me what engine they use becuase the game is bad.

As far as my FPS goes (nice cyber-stalking there lol), the FPS was horrible at times in the starting area. It wasn't always that bad but it was horrible in places. I was able to play the game just fine most of the time and I still agree with the previous review. I never said I couldn't play the game so please don't make stuff up, thanks.

They way it was worded it sounds like most the time you were at 5fps, which in most peoples mind would be unplayable. would you not agree if that was the case?  In any event whom ever posted that was off in alot of cases and if you want a real review you should check out the one posted by the MMORPG guy it list pretty much everything and very factual :)

Originally posted by watchawatcha

Originally posted by DracSchnider

Originally posted by Zekiah

Originally posted by Slipscreen

Originally posted by warmaster670

Originally posted by Slipscreen

Originally posted by Zekiah

Originally posted by Slipscreen

Originally posted by Zekiah

Originally posted by karmath

I havnt been following this game very closely but are you sure it uses the same client as WAR?

 

If so, lol! Another unplayable server crashing 2 fps funfest! woo!

FPS is a big concern in Rift. I have a very new gaming rig and the lowest I saw it go was 5 FPS in the newbie area, I was crawling.

you're rig must suck then my wife is playing on a fricken piece of crap PC

 

2..0 dual core

4gigs memory

geforce 8400 (LOL told you it was a piece of crap)

and she runs the game on low and does ok a lot better than 5 fps so spare me your BS please

No BS, it's a very good rig. Please don't take offense, just stating the truth about my beta experience.

not taking offense just think something is wrong on your end, like i said I was actually surprised when my wifes rig could run the game and then said "holy **** it doesn't run half bad".

 

so buddy it something on your end.

Sorry, but just because it runs fine for you doesnt mean it will run fine for someone else, for all you know the game doesnt work well with his specific video card, which, you know, would be teh games fault.

 

Really i figured mmo gamers would know this.

I do know this, unfortunately i have seen too many times someone coming to a forum complaining that their "awesome gaming rig" should be able to run "anything" but when it can't they blame the game when its actually something on their end.

 

especially on MMORPG.com where it seems all the jaded "i hate everything" cesspool come to complain about MMOs not meeting their standards. they will find any reason to bash a game.

Did you not read up on the beta forums about the FPS issue? There were many threads covering the issue, I'm surprised you didn't see any. At any rate, when the beta forums come back up you can go read up yourself.

 

Actually if you look at the forums you will see that there are two issues with the FPS.

1. Biggest issue is cards over 2 years old and weak processors

2. ATI cards... wonder if that is why it has an Nvidia meant to be played stamp on it.   (although recent events showed that ATI released a driver so they to could play)

 Don't forget background debugger and monitoring software running behind the beta.  Like all betas have.  Trion's biggest fault is letting so many people into Beta because so many treat this game like it's a released title. 

 That is true, although many people also dont have issues I can only guess how much smoother it will run with out debugging.   As to beta testers I think thats something that Dev's need to work on.  We need quality testers not people just looking for a demo.   Mind you because of the issues ATI did identify a problem and fixed it in the drivers.  As well Trion put in better multi threading opts which helped out alot cept for the crash which was fixed atfer it was noticed in a few hours.    I think what really needs to happen is all the reviews need to be tossed and wait until the game releases so people can get real info on the actual full game and not just a beta closed off intro.

Originally posted by Zekiah

Originally posted by Swanea

People should try forming their own opinions by trying things out rather then letting others do that for you eh?

For people not able to get into beta that "trying things out" will come with a $50+ price tag. I for one and happy to wade through differing opinions to make sure I really want to drop that fifty bucks on a title. So many people take offense to others' opinions for no reason. Some people will buy the game, others won't. No biggie.

 The issue as stated to inform people would be great if you have used factual info rather then fill them with negitive feedback on untrue stuff, or based on how you think the game works.    But seeing I did play the beta and I do know things like rifts are dynamic and anot always static etc that is the only reason why I respond to this thread.  If indeed the game was as you said there may have been some merit.   Now looking at your other posts it sounds like for one that you could barely run the game so how can you base anything on how good things are if you are saying you had around 5fps?   how cna you honeslty tell us that the game sucks if you can't play it with your "new rig that runs 5fps?"    To me that would be like watching a whole movie in slow motion and saying yeah the film was too long, boring the action was terrible slow and painful to watch.

So tell us how you can give an opinion on anything that is legit if you cant even run the game?

Originally posted by Zekiah

Originally posted by Slipscreen

Originally posted by warmaster670

Originally posted by Slipscreen

Originally posted by Zekiah

Originally posted by Slipscreen

Originally posted by Zekiah

Originally posted by karmath

I havnt been following this game very closely but are you sure it uses the same client as WAR?

 

If so, lol! Another unplayable server crashing 2 fps funfest! woo!

FPS is a big concern in Rift. I have a very new gaming rig and the lowest I saw it go was 5 FPS in the newbie area, I was crawling.

you're rig must suck then my wife is playing on a fricken piece of crap PC

 

2..0 dual core

4gigs memory

geforce 8400 (LOL told you it was a piece of crap)

and she runs the game on low and does ok a lot better than 5 fps so spare me your BS please

No BS, it's a very good rig. Please don't take offense, just stating the truth about my beta experience.

not taking offense just think something is wrong on your end, like i said I was actually surprised when my wifes rig could run the game and then said "holy **** it doesn't run half bad".

 

so buddy it something on your end.

Sorry, but just because it runs fine for you doesnt mean it will run fine for someone else, for all you know the game doesnt work well with his specific video card, which, you know, would be teh games fault.

 

Really i figured mmo gamers would know this.

I do know this, unfortunately i have seen too many times someone coming to a forum complaining that their "awesome gaming rig" should be able to run "anything" but when it can't they blame the game when its actually something on their end.

 

especially on MMORPG.com where it seems all the jaded "i hate everything" cesspool come to complain about MMOs not meeting their standards. they will find any reason to bash a game.

Did you not read up on the beta forums about the FPS issue? There were many threads covering the issue, I'm surprised you didn't see any. At any rate, when the beta forums come back up you can go read up yourself.

Actually if you look at the forums you will see that there are two issues with the FPS.

1. Biggest issue is cards over 2 years old and weak processors

2. ATI cards... wonder if that is why it has an Nvidia meant to be played stamp on it.   (although recent events showed that ATI released a driver so they to could play)

Originally posted by Zekiah

Originally posted by mackdawg19

Originally posted by Zekiah

Originally posted by Rabenwolf

Originally posted by kingtommyboy

This thread is only for people who play rift in beta. I've never been a rift fanboy. I also never really followed it. But I'm getting curious about this game when I see the screenshots. So my question is, what is rift like? Is it a good game? Did you liked it while you were playing the beta? What are the pro's and con's? What do you think about the game? Please only answer when you actually played the beta, I want to read real opinions.

 

Rift is like playing the most sub par and generic mmorpg in existence and having a small twist to give the illusion its deep.

The illusion pays off with its class system. 

 

Here's what you need to know:

 

Class System:  It is not a real multi-class system. Very few people actually look at it and see what they did. There are really only 4 independent classes in the game. Each class has 8 skill trees (excluding the pvp tree, which isnt really a full on tree). These trees are called souls to help cover up the fact they are just skill trees. So where WoW has 10 classes and 3 trees per class.... Rift does something similar but changes it to 4 classes with 8 trees, though only 3 trees at any given build. In essence they are not much different. 

Furthermore, Rift's skill trees are not really deep and or varied. Many skills in one tree will be nearly identical to another tree, just with a different name and perhaps different element attached to it. 

In addition to that, 60% of the trees are DPS oriented. Most have dps, but 60% are more "high end" & "constant" dps oriented. 

A developer posted this awhile back in the Beta forums. (NDA has been lifted) It shows the trees and their focus in case anyone wanted to protest my "60% claim". 

So far the over all opinion on the forums is that the trees and classes are way too imbalanced at the moment. Right now theres no reason to not play a cleric who can dish out massive dps, heal, get a pet, tank and be a caster (both aoe, cc and direct damage). Cleric will be the most played class, playing anything else in a PvP and even PvE environment will be silly unless they make changes.

 

Rifts: Despite what some try to claim, Rifts are not random. Not in the sense you are thinking. They all have the same spawn points. This means Rifts will only appear at pre-set spawn points. Eventually you can start seeing  where they will spawn before hand, and thus make your rounds. Invasions and NPC scouting parties are really just mobs spawned that run along a preset path. Thus you will know where they are going to go, in addition the map tells you where they will go. Kind of defeats the purpose. During rifts, players rush to "tag" as many mobs as possible in order to get the loot and points for the leader board, thus cheapening the effect of "working together."

 

Quests: Take the word "generic" to a whole new level. They absolutely suck. Even many f2p games have better quests. I had to argue with some numb nut over on the beta forums about this issue. He defended quests as being great because the "quest text box was interesting". He actually tried to call the generic text in the text box as being the quest game play. Quests are a constant Kill 10 wolves, and collect 10 mushrooms.  There is very little scripting at all in the quest system, its as if they just copied and pasted the quests over and over and over and just changed the mob to kill or the item to pick up.  PvE quests are just bad!  To make matters worse, you dont even need the text box as the moment you "accept a quest" from a generic NPC standing in one spot with an little icon above their head, you get a large yellow circle on your map telling you exactly where to go and what to kill. Its a fairly brainless ordeal.

 

Crafting: So minimal and badly done, it makes WoW's crafting system look genius and deep. The general feedback on the beta forums is that crafting is dumb, boring, and essentially pointless at this point and time. Unless they redesign the entire process, I doubt it will be better later on.

 

Leveling: You spend more than 1/3 of the entire leveling process in one small linear zone. Yes, over 1/3!  The max level is 55 and you finally leave the starter zone (not tutorial zone) at lvl 20.  Each side will have their linear progression of zones after that. Defiant with the southern zones, Guardians with the northern zones, and the contested zones around Port Scion which is in the very middle.

 

Dungeons: Not nearly as well made as dungeons found in other games. They are mostly uninspired, pointlessly hard generic npcs. Very little is done in the way of scripting.  Currently if you die on a generically placed boss after a tunnel filled with elite mobs just standing around, you can rez and come back to the boss and their damage taken will still be the same. There is no real penalty right now for dying in a dungeon. 

 

Conclusion & Final Thoughts: After playing in all 3 beta events as well as being present at their E3 booth and seeing it first hand.... I find the game underwhelming, uninspired and really sloppy. Its as though they had a great concept but couldnt actually execute it in a manner that would really impress. 

For starters they went with the GameBryo engine, which is just bad. It has the GameBryo visual feel to it as well, which is why its getting a lot of "warhammer" comparisons. They clearly didnt invest their time and money into designing a well rounded game.  This means, crafting, PvE, Quests... everything not part of their "npc rifts" was just slopped together. It feels like they didnt even try to do a better job than the competition. This wouldnt surprise me since they are also developing another mmorpg at the same time. My hypothesis is that Rifts is just a means to get some early revenue while they work on something they probably care more about. The mmorpg in question is the SyFy channel mmo they have licensed.

Keep in mind Rifts are just Player Quests ala WAR, though without much of the well crafted scripted events. Tabula Rasa did a lot of the things Rifts do, and they came across as doing a better job at it. Games like Dark and Light had mobs who actually migrated and dwindled dynamically based on player involvement. So dynamic gameplay isnt all that "new", we are just waiting for someone to do a really good job at it.

The world is full of hostile mobs. You cannot take two steps without running into another generic mob that for some reason has a grudge against you. Get within its radius and it will make its sound fx and charge at you. This not only helps break what little immersion might be present, but really makes riding around on a mount a pain in the arse. Freemarch (defiant starter)  is a lot more open and slightly better to navigate than say Silverwood (guardian starter). Cities really were a let down. They are a couple of huts with a few NPCs standing around them and perhaps one big building in the center. You will be disappointed in the size and scope of your faction city, as its more of a faction hut.

I believe Rift is trying to sell itself on being a next gen AAA title without actually adding next gen AAA content across the board. Their marketing department is running in over time really trying to sell the image of the game and hide its simplistic and below average design. Right now, this game wont be able to keep a large player base past the 3 and then 6th month mark. It will have its small niche of loyal fanatics but it will be hard pressed to do better than Aion much less WAR. 

The good is that the dev team seems responsive and they come across as a very likable bunch. I just wish I could say the same for their product.

I actually loved what I saw at E3 and followed the game closely. This response is completely neutral, and comes from playing all 3 beta's extensively. Conclusions are neutral and fair. Just being honest.

My best advice is, dont hype yourself up over this game. Sadly, it is not worth it.

^ Truth

Well said, pretty much sums up my thoughts from beta.

Sadly, once I got to were he stated they used the gamebyro engine I stopped reading. Do people not know what the gamebyro toolset is? Clearly some people don't and think this is a problem with rift. Here is a little insight straight from wiki:

A Gamebryo license can be purchased as either binary (headers, libraries and tools) or with full source code, so developers can debug the engine (and use it as reference for any customizations).

RIFT uses the toolset, not the engine and have stated they used it for clientside things and most of it has been written out. Even still the engine is a good engine if they were to use it. Game engines get updated all the time, look at crysis and hero engine and even AOC's engine. Just because they were made light years ago doesn't mean they are aged. The rest of what he stated is pure opinion in my eyes. I like RIFT, I enjoy the quests, and enjoy the multi class system. What people need to stop doing is this though:

My best advice is, dont hype yourself up over this game. Sadly, it is not worth it.

Quit invoking your opinion on others, just debate the subject at hand. It's fine to be negative about something and debate that or post it. But theres simply no need to over do it and start telling your readers what they should or shouldn't do. So my best advice is to not give my advice and just debate. I'm not god, you want advice, seek out a counsler.

I couldn't care less what engine Rift uses, it's garbage none the less.

 Then why are you still reading these forums your mind is made up already ;)

Originally posted by Zippy

Trion said 6+ months ago there would be no housing in at release.  They said they may consider adding it after release but they have promised us nothing.  Housing has been of the most popular requested features along with dual targetting, additional races and various other demands.  It may very well be added after relase but nothing has been said.  The big question is how well will Rift do at relase.  If it has a healthy release with a population that is stable it is likely the game will grow outwards quite a bit.  Trion's plan seems to be to release a game quite narrow in scope and content then after release expand horizontally.  Housing would likely be one of the features on their list of things they would like to do.  But its such a big feature it may not be done until the 1st expansion, if the game is successful enough to have one.

 I agree. 

 I do think we will see all of the above at some point in time given the Developers track records on implementing what we all want, I also agree that as to when will be based on sucess, and size of population so they can get an idea on if its instance or going to be small towns like VG etc.  They could easy add islands etc, I think they are waiting to see how things go and than decide on whats next.

Originally posted by Sinn

Originally posted by Goggy

Originally posted by Sinn

it sort of always happens like that people who love the game will try to justify their purchase until the end of time - I try to see a consistent stream of comments that are similar to each other because in no way where there is thousands of people who play would they say the same negative thing about a game  - I really haven't seen anyone say anything super great beside (rifts) being good but who knows it's still early things can change - like i said for myself it's something to tide me over until the big two come out.

 Ok, GW2 is one of them, what's the other one?

KOTOR but that is because it has this story mechanic that I love in bioware games and I feel like MMOs  have zero soul you just click through the text to deliver mail or kill X amount of something..i mean if you're going to do that at least mask it with an idea that makes it interesting - it's good people are excited for this game but like the guy said above me ...people become used to settling for less and then it just creates stagnant world

 now here is something I do 100% agree on, that mmo's do need more to bring you into the world,  get rid of the text being in 100% voice acting we have the tech lets use it.  Peoples machines all come with more than enough HDD since 4 years ago.   That or change the systems and get rid of the man radars and make people have to read the lore to know where to go or even better go back to the old system where you had to actually chat with the "NPC bot" to progress the quest or to even find out if there was a quest.  too much is silver platter now days and people end up not reading to just level faster.

Rahbenwolf I disagree with alot of your post.  Being in all the beta's and have had many classes up to max level and played around with all the systems here is why.

The soul system:

I agree that it does some what mimic WoW's tallent system however you are wrong that most the skills are the same with diffrent names.   I do see that 1-3 of the totoal 32 souls do have some simular looking skills but if you read they are indeed diffrent.   The basic skills ie skill 1 - 4 level are generally 1 attack based which I agree is the same across the board but still diffrent enough, and yes some have elements attached, some leach life but they are still diffrent.  This is the same for all games out there even future ones.   The rest of the skills start to change after the 2nd unlock.  On top of that the "talent points are 100% diffrent across trees"  Well some look the same like one may say increase crit % the other is increase crit dmg % these are indeed diffrent. 

The other end the classes do not play the same at all other then the 1st skill.   looking at the War classes, a reaver is no where near a riftblade, the reaver uses debuffs and the likes well the riftblade uses fire spears and others abilities.  how can you say they play the same?  mages are completely diffrent too.  A storm caller level 20 is all AoE and knockback... what else will do that?  Pyro is more DD based with some cone attacks and 1 AoE  no chain lighting etc, no aoe knockbacks , snares etc. Cloromancer has none of these as plays more like a blood mage form VG.

I agree that there is alot of DPS trees but back to the souls what makes it diffrent is you can respec at any time or change your profession if you dont like it with out having to reroll, as long as you stay in your "class"  unlike wow where you are a hunter and only a hunter with 3 trees to play in.  The Soul is your class and the points are just abilities.

As to blanace its not an issue.  There is a class which is designed to kill a certian class so in reality one class may be Op vs this or that but there is always another that can kill it but its weaker against C.  The idea behind this is where groups / raid configs become important.   Solo you may have 80% luck at killing but there will be that 1 class which is your bane always and how do you over come it?  well I could respec to x class to kill him but then I lose all this or that.  I dont think clerics are "god"  I can kill all but 1 with one of my classes yet a void knight kills me easy... why because it was a bane to my class.  having the option to change is how they get rid of the balance issues.   that or play with your friends

AS to the rifts you are partially right with the term random.  The locations are for the most part static set but random times / orders however event triggers span rifts at completely random locations and some at standard locations.  Having been in 4 events to date and the spawn locations of the titans and some of the rifts have not been at all the static locations. I do agree people try to tag as many mobs to get more loot but in reality this wont be as big of an issue seeing we are all trapped in the same zone with X rifts where in real play we will not be contained and thus less people helping on the rifts.   

Crafting:

I think the crafting is just like Aion/Wow... have the mats lets craft... there are other options to add extra perminate stone, or enchantment.  nothing new... not any worse then wow or the others simple is all.

Leveling:

 20 may be 1/3 but I am willing to bet it slows down alot.  look at progression from 18-20 there was a very noticible slow down.  I just hope its not as bad as EQ1 or Aion but I wouldnt mind as long as its not grinding.  I am also sure that they would not make it that easy to allow you to cap out in 3 zones.  1-20 in most games is pretty fast heck some even up to 30 than usually things start to really hurt... except WoW after Cat where they made everything Easy mode which was a sad day.

Dungeons:

The beginner dungeons are just that they are better than most beginner ones I have seen... notthing to special I agree but still not bad. 

Death and bosses:

This statement is partially correct, There is little to lose in death as we speak.  Beta 3 they added more of a debuff to death with soulwalk, however it looks like they are still tweaking that part so it may still change they have messed with it every beta thus far.

My conclusion:

Like most MMO's this game brings what it was said it would... a complete well rounded system based on the best of every current game of this type.  I do know that in talking to said Alpha player whos name will be Tico as not to get him in trouble, there is alot more to rifts then what we have seen in the starter area and we have only had a spoonful.   I hope Tico is right and that there is more as I enjoy all of this thus far.   By far the event invasions and the world PVP that I played in reminds me alot of my favorite parts of many other games I played.   The world has alot more then a linear path if you read my other thread there are many things hidden off the path if you look, and even some neat special things where certian things trigger world events or bosses.   

If you were expecting something new other then the lore and a traditional MMO with PVP and a Rift invasion system than this will not be for you.  From looking at all the other Betas of other games I have played that are coming I think this one is topping them.  Most the others are either not Fantasy which is where my mind set is or they are following more of a single player game with co-op friend play which is not all bad but not what I want either.

I do write these things not just as hype but to set the facts from other fictional perceptions.   Alot of people that dont like the game in most cases are ranting about things they precieve as true perhaps but unless sure you should not quote as it makes your future posts worthless.