Rift PvP Guide - What Makes Rift So Much Fun?

PvP is actually one of the most entertaining things to do on Rift aside from the conventional questing, dungeon raids, invasion events and the likes. A well executed PvP provides more than enough thrills and frills to keep you coming back. For this reason, we've compiled a short Rift PvP guide to teach you the basics of PvP so you can maximize some of the unique features of Rift that set it apart from other MMORPGs.

There are two basic approaches to a PvP: Warfront and World PvP. To put thinks in perspective, a world PvP is a whole lot simpler in that there aren't that many things to consider when you roam around with friends taking on various challenges that come your way. By our book, that's about as self-explanatory as it could get. Warfronts on the other hand require a rift PvP guide in that they are more complex and more rewarding, literally and figuratively of course.

Each level section opens up your access to specific PvP games. At levels 10+, you have The Black Garden Guide, at level 20+ The Codex Guide; levels 30+ gets you the Whitefall Steppes Guide while The Battle of Port Scion Guide is accessed only at level 50. You can either approach each via pick-up groups - not that different from any pick-up game where you use whoever is there or premades which are pre-arranged PvPs planned ahead of time.

If you are using a Warrior class character, a Void Knight-Riftblade soul/off-soul will give you the best chances to succeed. This combination has adequate armor and damage protection but also sufficient mana burning and magic damage to render enemies incapacitated. Void Knights and Riftblades allow players to be anti-casters and anti-melee at the same time, neutralizing the PvP strengths of most other classes like Rogues and Mages. Always strive to maximize your setup for Soul Pillage, Catalyze and Flame Spear to do the most damage in PvP.

For Clerics, Purifiers are typically the main PvP souls with Inquisitor and Warden as off souls. Other Rift PvP guides will suggest Inquisitor-Cabalist builds but frankly we don't see the point for this since this is nothing more than a poor man's mage PVP build while going away from the cleric strength. Purifiers, on the other hand, have excellent healing abilities and combined with the high damage from the Inquisitor's Purge ability can be a formidable character on the PvP battlefield. The Purge in particular grants you the ability to strip healing over time spells, shields, and buffs rendering the enemy bare and naked especially against Focus Fire. The minor focus on the Warden off soul grants heal over time spells as auxiliary function while waiting to re-max.

Rogue characters can benefit from a Marksman-Bard hybrid on their Rift PvP guide and we agree; Marksman deals great damage while buffs come from Bards. Melee is the strength of the Rogue class and Rogues are excellent support classes in a PvP setting especially with strong allies that have excellent close combat abilities.

Mage PvP characters work off of the Stormcaller and Dominator souls but in general are weak for warfronts. Still, the Dominator is a generally versatile main soul that can easily adapt to PvP demands and combined with Archon and Stormcaller possess potent debuffs that can do much damage on the PvP battlefield. Intelligent use of abilities such as Knockback when assaulting the vault in Codex makes the Mage a powerful warfront character but it requires a great degree of skill to be effective.

Other Rift PvP builds can also offer insight into playing the proper PvP character. Try it out with a re-classed soul system and see how you will fare. Our best suggestion is to start early so you won't have to deal with high level opponents as you are learning the intricacies of PvP.