In July we bought you a preview of Rift 4.2:Celestial Storm. Following this update, on October 25th Trion Worlds will release 4.3 with two major updates: "Bastion of Steel" 10 man raid and “Mystic Archer” - a new soul for the Mage class.
Richard "Icarus" Byon (Game Designer) and Jennifer "Yaviey" Bridges (Community Manager) graciously took time out of their busy schedules to walk us through Bastion of Steel and here's what we have to share!
Prerequisites
For Lore buffs, BoS (Bastion of Steel) is the ongoing battle between Crucia and Ankhet. At this stage Crucia has the upper hand after gathering more resources to create weapons and it is up to Ascended to stop her from getting the upper hand!
For Stat buffs BoS is a 2400 hit requirement raid that can be obtained by running T1 raids. Composition wise, two tanks would be of great benefit.
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Location
Bastion of Steel is located in Vostigar Peaks. If you follow the storyline or have attempted Dopey Opie’s puzzle, you would have found your way beneath Crucia’s claw at some stage.
What is BoS?
Bastion of Steel is an arena style 3 boss raid.
The first boss is Azranel, an angelic mechanical construct that hails in lightning charged lasers keeping you on your toes before the second boss Commander Isiel. Isiel is a stunning metal goddess joined by Libritor Tank, Vindicator MK1. Remember when I said two tanks might be of great benefit? As each encounter and wave increases in difficulty you will also need to move from fire, dodge blue cubes and defeat members of the Crucia army to make it to the third and final phase with storm giant Titan X. Before you even get to him though the mechanical allies of Crucia want to say hello while your raid is tested on how to get out of fire that has a trail of its own! Then he appears, best looking weapons in the entire game to slice and dice with as you are tested on your ability to coordinate buff charges on golden boxes, while relying on interrupts or you will be pulled to him.
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A bird's eye view
Bastion of Steel is enthralling. Three bosses don’t seem like much and won’t be to those who have played RIft specifically to raid for some time but wave after wave there is an extra sense of urgency knowing the end isn’t so far away you won’t complete it like it has been for some in past 20 man content.
Trion Worlds made a solid decision focusing ten man raid content as mmo trends in the past two or three years seem to indicate that content for large numbers is becoming increasingly difficult for players to fill or maintain. On top of this players like me - who currently only play Rift creative content including Dimensions, puzzles, lore and achievements - would need more cohesive fun to return to leveling and gearing so we may continue to enjoy content we like in time frames that aren’t as long as they use to be. There are systems, zones and mechanics already available that just need to be fine tuned to current rewards especially now that ten man raids are leading the way. Everything from LFR (looking for raid system,) to guild structures and streamlining classes and currencies could support this new way of playing end game in Rift encouraging readjusting, returning or new players to enjoy the Celestial content of Rift 4.2 and beyond.
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Behind the scenes with Icarus
Thank you Icarus and Yaviey for guiding us through Bastion of Steel raid, I had a blast and appreciate all your time sharing these questions also asked to Icarus:
MMORPG: As a Dev team what has changed moving from 20 man to focus on 10 man?
Changing focus from 20 to 10 man raids changes many dynamics in how we have to create our encounters. Elements like how we determine enrage timers to general raid compositions and so many others are different when creating an encounter for less players.
MMORPG: Favorite encounters in this raid?
I really like the final boss in this raid. It has an interesting mechanic in a later phase of the encounter that requires a combination of skill execution and resource management.
MMORPG: Favorite encounters in Rift?
There are so many encounters in Rift it is very difficult to pick a favorite. However two encounters (one a dungeon, one a raid) that stand out in my personal experience, are the fight against Konstantin in Expert King’s Breach and Guurloth in Gilded Prophecy.
MMORPG: Will this raid be available on the LFR (looking for raid system) and what can new players who want to raid look forward to on the LFR.
As this is our first Tier 2 raid, the Bastion of Steel will not be available through the LFR queue. As for what might be available in the LFR queue in the future, players will have to just wait and see!
MMORPG: Are their plans to add all content to LFR?
The future is cloudy and mysterious… There are some interesting plans for the future but I’m not at liberty to talk about them at the moment I’m afraid.
Your thoughts?
Have you also noticed the trend change toward large scale content in mmo’s? Do you currently raid in any mmorpg? What would it take for you to continue or return to raiding in RIft?
I would love to know and look forward to sharing/reading more news with you on the Mystic Archer Mage soul also coming with 4.3 as well as Autumn Harvest that arrives the day after 4.3 release October 25th-26th.
