Our series of class previews continues with a first look at Rift: Planes of Telara's stealthy Nightblade class. For those of us out there who must have their stealth itch scratched when playing an MMO, the Nightblade will be right up your alley.

As a stealth class the Nightblade prefers to wear light armor, though he isn't just your typical cloak 'n' dagger rogue. Instead, he also possesses the ability to tap into the planar magics of fire and death, giving him that extra edge when ambushing his foes and dispatching them quickly.

Class: Nightblade

Possessing deadly agility and mastery of the blade, the Nightblade can also draw upon the planar magics of fire and death to deal doom in a variety of ways. Favoring light armor, their ability to stalk and quickly eliminate their adversaries means the unfortunate quarry rarely has the chance to defend, let alone counterattack.

Strengths

A Nightblade’s stealth and proficiency with weapons can dispatch enemies quickly and silently, while their knowledge of arcane magic gives them versatility in dealing a wide variety of damage.

Weaknesses

Preferring the element of surprise and precise, killing blows, the Nightblade has trouble enduring a lengthy battle. Wearing only lighter armor, the Nightblade is better suited to sneak attacks or hit-and-run tactics.

History & Lore

Only those who deal in the shadows know the name of Clan Zardonis. For ages, the clan’s ruthless regime of physical training produced the finest murderers and cutthroats. Their teachings shunned the arcane arts as weak and unreliable, but one young upstart would prove them wrong.

Acacia was the finest disciple of her generation, and mastered the art of the veiled blade at a young age. Yearning for more power, she studied the arcane in secret, experimenting in the shadows and growing more lethal with every passing season. For almost a decade the young woman ruthlessly enforced her clan’s will by night, poring over eldritch tomes in the dim light of dawn.

In the winter of her twenty-second year, Clan Zardonis took a contract to ruin a family of wealthy Mathosian traders. Such a large endeavor required the clan to dispatch many of its finest killers, Acacia included, on a midnight raid on the traders’ compound. The clan did not realize its folly until the assault was well under way, for they faced not fat merchants, but the mages of the Abyssal cult, and within moments found themselves tightly bound in chains of planar energy.

Of course, the Abyssal did not expect a foe with knowledge so similar to their own, and were completely unprepared when Acacia slipped from the shadows, cold flame dancing on her daggers. A whirlwind of fire and steel, she moved through the cultists, her blades piercing magical wards and flesh alike. With the spell of binding broken, the assassins of Clan Zardonis were free to exact their revenge, and by dawn not a single cultist remained among the living.

Saved from the brink of annihilation, the assassins embraced Acacia’s power and made it their own. Over the decades to come, Clan Zardonis flourished, spreading their teachings to a new generation of Rogues, who became known as masters of shadow and flame.

There is a lot more to come as we continue our exclusive look at the Rift classes before E3. Tomorrow we’ll highlight another class so be sure to stay tuned!